The award was presented by Williams Chief Technical Officer Paddy Lowe, who noted that "an F1 team is its staff, typically the engineers are the ones who make the difference so this is a fantastic scheme" and that Owen secured the win due to "evidence of great leadership" during an intensive evaluation process earlier this year.
Owen follows in the footsteps of other notable Formula Student alumni, including last year's winner Martins Zalmans, Team Bath Racing's former Chassis Lead who won the award last year. As a rising star of Formula OneTM engineering, he not only wins this unique accolade but secures a two year placement with the Williams F1 team.
Upon hearing the news, Chris at the FS team caught up with Owen over email to congratulate him and find out more - read on for our inspirational interview Q&A with the man himself!
Congratulations on your win, how do you feel?
Pretty great; it’s amazing to have been selected. Makes a good reward for all the hard work through 4 years of uni!
What was it like receiving this prestigious award?
It’s a real honour, and I’m still not sure it’s settled in yet. Receiving the award at the Autosport Awards was particularly incredible – it’s such an amazing event, with so many legends of motorsport there. A truly unforgettable experience.
What are you most looking forward to at Williams?
I’m really looking forward to applying what I’ve learned at university (especially in my Formula Student work!) to the sport I’ve followed so closely for so long, and to working in such a fast-paced and innovative engineering environment as Formula One. It’s been a dream of mine for the best part of 10 years to work in motorsport, and I’m really looking forward to getting started!
How do you think that Formula Student has contributed to your success?
I think that Formula Student was key to my success – the competition teaches you so many things that nothing else at university can. The experience of contributing to and managing such a major project, starting, as we did, from scratch, has really made me a more rounded engineer, and I think that people in the engineering industry, both inside and outside the motorsport world, really recognise the benefits of taking part in initiatives such as FS.
What has been your stand out memory of Formula Student so far?
I think my standout memories of FS have to be seeing some of the larger parts for the car, such as the uprights (which my group designed) or the assembled front monocoque, for the first time. There’s a mixture of satisfaction and relief when you see the parts you’ve spent so long staring at in CAD all fit together which you just can’t get from anything else. If and when we get EV3 moving I think that’ll be the ultimate version of this!
All the winners of this award have competed in Formula Student - why do you think that FS competitors do so well here?
I think that it’s the practical experience of all parts of the engineering process that you get from FS which makes the difference. With most projects you do during a degree, you’re usually either making something relatively small, making a subassembly of something larger, or doing a pure paper design exercise. But with Formula Student you have to design, manufacture and operate an extremely large and complex system, to very strict deadlines. It’s the closest thing to working in industry that you can do at university, and it teaches you so many lessons which every engineer needs to learn; that includes the “softer” skills like project management and effective teamwork as well as the obvious technical lessons. The combination of skills which Formula Student gives you is exactly what Williams are looking for with this award.
What advice would you give young engineers who are starting their time at university or are considering an engineering degree?
My advice to anyone interested or starting out in engineering would be to try and get as much hands-on experience as you can. I’ve spent loads of my spare time while at uni doing the maintenance for a fleet of racing go-karts owned by the Motor Club at Imperial. I’d pretty much never even held a spanner before getting involved in that, but the knowledge I’ve gained from taking so many things apart and putting them back together again has definitely made me a much better engineer, because it gives you more of a perspective of what will work and what definitely won’t. Engineering degrees often focus a great deal on the theoretical aspects of the profession, so it’s important to get some perspective on the other end of things – it makes you a much more rounded engineer.
And finally, what are your future plans?
For the immediate future my focus is on making sure that Imperial Racing Green get EV3 built ready for competition at Formula Student 2019 (if it all comes together it’ll be our first new car since 2014!), then I’ll be joining Williams for at least two years after graduating. I haven’t thought any further than that quite yet!
Main photo is taken from Autosport.com, click for further details of the award.