Continuing in the direction of what I enjoyed at Prodrive, I was able to join McLaren F1 Team for an internship as a mechanical design engineer in Woking (UK). During my time with the team, I spent my time in two different departments, process improvement and transmission/gearbox.

In my first stint, I developped CAD tools to accelerate the design process, creating presets for specific features, allowing designers to gain time, but also improve on repetability and reliability. 

I then worked on a reliability upgrade for the transmission, which was integrated on the car shortly after. I also spent some time on creating/adapting our different test riggs for the 2026 gearbox testing.

Doing so, I had the chance to discover the different stages of development : from design and manufacturing to testing and integration. 

For my first real engineering intership, I was able to join Prodrive as a "Motorsport Engineer", rather general, allowing me to discover the different roles. My time was mainly spent in the design office and assisting performance engineers.

From design work in CAD, to analysis through FEA, I gained valuable experience in all facets of race car design.

I mostly worked on diverse mechanical parts for the Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo, learning constraints of different manufacturing methods and how to adapt the design. I also was able to work on a few composite parts, getting to understand this very different process.

I had the opportunity to spend a weekend with AMR support engineers at the ADAC GT4 at Nurburgring. It allowed me to discover the other fascinating side of motorsport that is track-side operations. We had to deal with performance and reliability questions with customer teams, bringging them valuable help to improve the running of their cars.

To continue my learning process, I took part in the preparation, maintenance and tuning of rally and rally-raid vehicles at PH Sport HQ in Langres (France).

On an ex-Loeb Saxo KitCar, I was in charge of preparation for a rally. This included installation of new components (additional headlight array), but also repairing various problems and having the running reliably for the customer.

I participated in a full test day for a customer with a DS3 WRC, this included getting the car ready, makibng setup changes on-the-fly like differential preload etc..

Besides this, I had many other tasks such as creating an install guide for the Clio Rally 5 Kit and then assisting a mechanic to do the install in quesiton.

This internship was my first introduction to working in motorsports. It was a great opportunity to learn many different skills and also understand the particular constraints and challenges that are faced  by the team.

I was charged with a complete rear subframe overhaul on Skoda Fabia Rally2 with all the proper verifications such as crack check and verifying straightness.

On more of an engineering side, I worked on the design of an electrical wiring harness extension to integrate some new components in line, all done with to the FIA specifications.

I was also able to assist the race engineers on some car setup sessions.