Stephanie Travers
Stephanie Travers is a Petronas Trackside Fluid Engineer for the Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 team, who became the first Black woman to stand on a Formula 1 podium. Hailing from Zimbabwe and living in the UK since 2004.
Background
Travers was born in 1994 in Harare, Zimbabwe and has been a Petronas trackside fluid engineer for the Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 team since 2019.[1] In 2018, Travers applied for the position of trackside fluid engineer for Petronas. Out of the more than 7000 applications, Travers got the opportunity and has been with the company ever since.
Education
Stephanie holds a B.Eng in Chemical Engineering with Industrial Studies from the University of Bradford, and an M.Sc in Advanced Chemical Engineering from Imperial College London, Asset Care Engineer at BASF (2017-2019) and Project Manager at PolyGen (Oct-Nov 2017).
Career
For a sport that is dominated by white men, the success of Stephanie has sent a whole wave of joy and energy not just in Zimbabwe but around the continent. The Chemical Engineer graduate has definitely broken a glass ceiling, and will inspire young girls and women to pursue their dreams. Stephanie joined the team in Barcelona where testing, data gathering and preparation for the 2019 season was taking place.[2]
Toto Wolff, the Team Principal, Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS described Stephanie as the perfect fit for the team. Wolff said, “PETRONAS has contributed greatly to the performance and the reliability that is at the very heart of the success we’ve enjoyed over the past five seasons.”
D’Araggio said, “Stephanie will operate at every race in the travelling PETRONAS Trackside Laboratory. These engineers represent the technical excellence of PETRONAS in Formula One and the company’s commitment to building a pool of talent for the advancement of our fluid technology from track-to-road. PETRONAS employs the best and the brightest throughout the company and I believe that Stephanie’s skillset, passion, determination and positive attitude will make her an incredible addition to our team.”
Stephanie works alongside five-time F1 World Champion Lewis Hamilton.
