Williams and Autosport are pleased to announce the names of the five finalists for the 2017 Autosport Williams Engineer of the Future Award. The annual award, which was introduced at last year’s event, names an engineering student from a UK university as a rising star of Formula One engineering and supports them with an accelerated career development programme at Williams. Following a targeted application process that saw eight of the UK’s leading universities nominate their star engineering students for consideration, the below five students have impressed in the first application round and have been selected to take part in an assessment workshop at the Williams HQ in Grove on 16th and 17th November 2016;Mark Ascott, University of BathRobert Beynon, University of BathOliver Cartlidge, University of BathJonathan Fernandez Hee, Oxford Brookes UniversitySam O’Neill, Imperial College LondonThis assessment workshop will see our five finalists complete a number of tasks designed to test their engineering know-how, team work, problem solving skills and personality fit. The students will be assessed by a panel of judges comprising leading industry, academic, media and Formula One personnel;Pat Symonds, Chief Technical Officer at WilliamsNicola Salter, HR Director at WilliamsEdd Straw, Editor-in-Chief of Autosport magazineTony Purnell, Former Team Principal of the Jaguar and Red Bull Formula One teams and Royal Academy of Engineering Visiting Professor at the University of CambridgeRichard Parry-Jones CBE, previously Group Vice President of Global Product Development, Chief Technical Officer and Head of Global R&D Operations at Ford Motor CompanyOne of our five candidates will be chosen as the recipient of the Autosport Williams Engineer of the Future Award, with the winner formally announced at the annual Autosport Awards on 4th December 2016. They will be offered an initial two-year placement in an accelerated development programme that will see them mentored by senior engineers and rotate through various areas of Williams before finding their specialism. During the placement, they will also get the unique opportunity to work in the team’s race operations division and gain experience at a Grand Prix.Speaking about the selection process Pat Symonds, Chief Technical Officer at Williams, said; “Last year we introduced this award to identify the UK’s brightest and best engineering students and give them a head start towards a career in Formula One. Once again, the calibre of applications we received has been remarkable and it hasn’t been easy to select just five students. The bright and motivated students coming to Williams in the coming weeks will be completing a number of hands-on tasks to demonstrate that they have the raw skills to become a future Formula One engineering star. Many of the sport’s legendary engineering figures began their career at Williams and, with this scheme, we are confident that many more will learn and hone their craft with us.”Edd Straw, Editor-in-Chief of Autosport magazine added; “This award embodies the fact that motorsport is just as much about engineering excellence as driving excellence, and perhaps even more so. The UK has a deserved reputation for developing many of the leading engineers in world motorsport, so it's no surprise that the standard of applicants for the Autosport Williams Engineer of the Future Award has been so high. Williams F1 has been at the forefront of developing such young engineering talent for almost 40 years, and given the calibre of the five finalists, there's no doubt that whoever wins this award will become part of that remarkable story.”