A Need for Speed: Carleton Engineering Student Embraces Co-op at Red Bull Racing

Leah's story of a year-long co-op in England, working with Red Bull Racing.

This story was originally written for the Carleton Newsroom by Dan Rubinstein.

Since last July, Carleton University engineering student Leah Penny has been putting in long hours at the Red Bull Racing Technology Campus in Milton Keynes, England, a small city northwest of London.

Classroom learning meets real-world applications

Penny, who's nearing the finish line of a year-long co-op position, has been helping design components for a new internal combustion engine for Red Bull Racing's Formula One car and has also been of a member of the team designing part of the physical structure of the engine.

The work is iterative and collaborative. Penny designs parts using CAD software and a simulation group tests the performance of these components. Designs are then refined and some parts manufactured at an in-house machine shop before being tested again and further refined.

Despite the painstaking process, Penny has loved the experience.

"When you do a co-op placement, you learn how to apply a lot of the things you're taught in class to real-world situations. And then you see the stuff that you learned at school come to life."

Moreover, the gig with Red Bull Racing, like her university studies as a whole, is an opportunity to continue pursuing her passion for racing and engineering — a combo that brought her from Nova Scotia to Carleton in the first place.

Start your engines

When Penny started at Carleton in 2021, she majored in aerospace engineering. After her second year, she switched to mechanical engineering. But auto racing has been her focus all along.

Throughout her three years at Carleton, Penny has been deeply involved with Ravens Racing, a multidisciplinary group of engineering students who design, build and race Formula One-style cars in a number of competitions every year.

"At first, it was a lot of shadowing people and learning," she says.

"Then I got to do more behind-the-scenes work, like helping with project management and sponsorships. Then I got the chance to work on powertrain and engine system and learn from some of the older, more experienced students. And then I became the team's powertrain lead.

"That's one of the great things about Ravens Racing: you get an opportunity to try a whole bunch of different things before choosing what to zoom in on. It's a very collaborative environment in which you learn to work as a team. That skill transfers well to professional work environments like what I'm experiencing at Red Bull Racing."

The Ravens Racing team's main goal, she adds, is to always be improving the car. Which reflects one of the overarching goals of engineering — to continuously design more effective and efficient systems and machines.

Welcoming toward women

Auto racing has experienced a surge in popularity in recent years. Fuelled by social media, video games and shows such as Formula 1: Drive to Survive, the sport is attracting new audiences, largely women, who now comprise about 40 per cent of the fan base, up from less than 10 per cent a decade ago.

"Everybody has been very welcoming," she says, "and companies like Red Bull Racing are working hard to diversify and create good environments for women and minorities. The culture and environment are changing."

Beyond her work in the U.K., Penny has enjoyed her time overseas, meeting other co-op students from around the world and visiting a half a dozen different European countries during weekends and holidays.

And while she's not sure exactly what her plans are when she graduates from Carleton, she says that racing will definitely be part of her future.