Formula 1 Renews £2.4M Engineering Scholarship Through 2029

Published October 29, 2026

Formula 1 has published its first sport-wide social-impact report and committed more than £2.4 million to extend its engineering scholarship program through the 2028/29 academic year. The renewal will add 10 scholars in each of the next three academic years, with full tuition, living costs and access to work placements across the sport.

The October 28 announcement sits at the intersection of motorsports and car culture: it is an attempt to turn F1’s global audience into a broader pipeline for engineering, technology and racing careers. The new report combines activity from Formula 1, the FIA, all 10 teams and 24 race promoters during 2025.

What the scholarship renewal covers

More than £2.4 million in funding through the 2028/29 academic year
10 new scholars per year from 2026/27 through 2028/29
Full tuition fees and living costs for students from underrepresented backgrounds
Placements with F1 teams, visits to the Formula 1 Media and Technology Centre, and Grand Prix weekend experiences
Participation by the University of Strathclyde, Imperial College London, Cambridge, Oxford and Italy’s MUNER

Formula 1 launched the Engineering Scholarship in 2021 and says it has supported 48 students so far. Participating universities select eligible students using criteria intended to widen access for lower-income and underrepresented groups, including demographics that are underrepresented within particular engineering courses.

The funding addresses a concrete barrier—what it costs to complete a degree—while the placements address another: access to the network and experience that often shape early careers in elite motorsport. Formula 1 has not yet published graduation, retention or motorsport-employment rates for scholarship alumni, so the long-term outcomes cannot be independently assessed from this report alone.

F1 reports reaching more than 500,000 young people

Formula 1 says education, STEM and community programs run across the sport reached more than 500,000 young people in 71 countries during 2025. Its report also lists more than 1,000 structured skills and talent-development opportunities, activities involving more than 2,500 young people at race events, and 140 participants in F1 Academy workshops.

Those figures are collective reach totals reported by Formula 1 and participating organizations, not the results of an independent impact study. They show scale, but they do not by themselves measure learning gains, career placement or whether participants stayed engaged with STEM. Formula 1 says it plans to improve governance, measurement and reporting as the programs expand.

The largest education programs

The British Council’s Learning Sectors program accounted for a large share of the reported reach. More than 150,000 students at over 700 schools in the United Kingdom, South Africa, India and Brazil participated in 2025. The report says the program will expand into China, Mexico and Spain, with a target of reaching another 250,000 students by the end of 2027.

STEM Racing, a hands-on program in which students design, manufacture, test and race miniature F1 cars, operates in more than 60 countries and engages over 29,000 schools annually, according to the report. Its 2025 world finals brought together 672 participants from 34 countries at the Singapore Grand Prix.

Track-based programs included school visits, engineering workshops, paddock experiences and community events organized with race promoters. That kind of access complements the competition itself. Chiefs Review’s coverage of the 2026 U.S. Grand Prix at COTA shows the sporting side of the same global platform, while Acura’s charity NSX auction is another example of automotive culture being used for a community cause.

Why the report matters

F1’s technical reputation makes it unusually well positioned to promote engineering careers, but the sport has also faced persistent questions about who can access those careers. The report explicitly connects its work to recommendations from the Hamilton Commission, created by Lewis Hamilton and the Royal Academy of Engineering to examine underrepresentation in U.K. motorsport.

Publishing one combined report is a useful baseline because teams, promoters and governing bodies previously presented many programs separately. The next test will be whether Formula 1 reports consistent outcomes over time—not just participation counts—and shows how scholarship recipients and program alumni progress into education and employment.

Sources

Featured image: official Formula 1 Social Impact Report graphic. Credit: Formula One World Championship Limited. Source and editorial-use context.