Kate Goldup
Kate Goldup...
Select an answer to get started
Who are you and what do you do?
Hi, I am Kate and I'm a senior aerodynamicist with Alpine F1 team. So I work in the aerodynamics department within one of the aero development groups. And within that, my specialty is front corner, so I'm responsible for all of the fairings over the legs, the external scoop development, and then also the internals. So making sure that we are calling our disc and our calliper sufficiently. And yeah, I really love it. It's a really great job.
What is your background?
So I grew up quite close to Enstone actually, in Northampton. I lived with my mom and my sister, and I didn't realise for quite a long time that I wanted to study engineering. It was looking back, the signs were there. So when I was in primary school, there was a group of engineers that came in and we built stuff. I dragged one of the other girls along to the workshops and I loved it, but I didn't realise that was actually something that I could do as a real job. So it was only when I got to secondary school and I met a lady who was a rocket scientist, and I just thought that was the coolest job title, and I decided it was something that I wanted to do. So I looked into it and realised that I could study aerospace engineering at university. So that's what I did. I went to Bristol, studied for a master's in aerospace engineering. During that, I talked to a lot of people that had found themselves going into Formula One, and aerodynamics within Formula One seemed like exactly what I wanted to do, so I applied for an internship at Reno, at the time, and was successful in the application and did that for a year and have not looked back. It was absolutely fantastic. Loved the internship, and then once I'd graduated from university, went straight back into Formula One, and that's where I've been working ever since.
Why F1, why Alpine?
So F1 for me was the pinnacle of aerodynamics. I knew that I wanted to work in aerodynamics, and when I was looking around at different industries that I could go into, it was F1 that there was the most exciting. I love the kind of fast turnaround times that we have. The fact that I can have an idea one day, develop that NCFD, send it to the tunnel within a matter of days if needed, and then for that to get turned around and sent to track, and the fact that that happens on such a short time scale, for me is so exciting. It means that we are constantly working on something new, it's always changing, and that is what really motivates me. Then in terms of Alpine in particular, what I've always found is that it's such a family feel to the office and the company, and that's something that I really, really love. I think the fact that I did my internship and then have chosen to come back, is such a positive because I kind of knew what I was coming back to. I knew some of the people and that environment and the kind of culture that we are building together, and that just comes from all of those kind of in-between moments that we're having, that we are working really, really hard, but we always have time to have a laugh, have a joke, and just kind of really enjoy what we're doing. It's a really fun environment to work in, so it is good to kind of take that step back and remember that this is something we love and we're lucky to do that. So definitely just make the most of it and enjoy it.