History was made on July 12, 2020 when Stephanie Travers from Zimbabwe, a Petronas trackside fluid engineer, became the first Black woman to stand on a Formula 1 podium after being selected by engineering team to receive trophy on their behalf after Lewis Hamilton win in Austria:F1.
Travers, a Petronas trackside fluid engineer for the Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 team since 2019. According to Giuseppe D’Ariggo, the Managing Director and Group CEO of PETRONAS Lubricants International, “More than 7,000 applicants applied for the job, we were looking for the best.” For A’Driggo, the best had to be talented, young, people with competence and full of passion for the sport.
Stephanie’s qualification include a BEng Chemical Engineering (University of Bradford, UK, 2001-16), MSc Chemical Engineering (Imperial College, UK, 2017), Asset Care Engineer at BASF (2017-2019) and Project Manager at PolyGen (Oct-Nov 2017).
Lewis Hamilton introducing her to the world
Hamilton on his Instagram gave an explained introduction of Stephanie, “I wanted to post this because it’s such an important moment. This is Stephanie who is one of my teammates. She is one of our trackside fluid engineers.”
“On Sunday, she became the first black woman to stand on the podium in Formula 1 history. This is an amazing achievement and I just wanted to acknowledge her for her hard work, positivity, and passion for her job.”
“Like most of the jobs in our sport they are in high demand, and Stephanie was selected out of over 7000 applicants for her role. Steph said she wants to inspire young black children, and children of color to believe that they can do it too, and I couldn’t agree more.”
“Put your mind to it, and you can be anything you want to be. So whilst I really appreciate all of the congratulations, I wanted to take the opportunity to lift her up, and share them with her. #manifest #hardwork #bethechange” wrote Hamilton on his social media.
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