This Friday 8 March marks International Women’s Day. Concluding our interviews with three inspirational women who work in different roles in businesses at Silverstone Park, we chat with Rebecca Cooper, a Senior Development Engineer with Delta Cosworth.
Rebecca’s interest in ‘mechanical things’ was sparked from an early age and led to her becoming a national hovercraft racing champion and also runner-up at world level!
“I grew up on a farm with lots of tractors, quad bikes and machinery which was fun to play with so I definitely started young when it came to an interest in mechanical things and engineering,” says Rebecca, 31.
“My family are very scientific – my parents are dentists – and I enjoyed the sciences at school and did well in A levels.
“Outside school I ended up racing hovercrafts in a team with my dad. It’s a relatively cheap form of motorsport. I’d tune and fix them after a crash and started racing them when I was 11.
“We became national champions and also 1-2 in the world – my father beat me! We’d be away for a week racing in Germany, Sweden and other places in Europe.”
The racing came to a halt when studies in mechanical engineering at Bath took over. Unsurprisingly, Rebecca graduated with a first-class master’s degree.
“Part of my course included a ‘sandwich placement’ when I spent a year mixing campus with industry. I joined a company testing high performance road engines – looking at peak power whilst reducing emissions – who sponsored me for my final two years at uni.
“During Covid I was still going in as I had a first aid qualification and they wanted me in!
“Then they asked if I wanted to learn about batteries. I love learning so I said ‘yes’ straight away and did that for 12 months before joining Cosworth. By then I wanted to focus just on batteries and Cosworth was an opportunity to do battery testing more seriously, as a test and development engineer.
“From there I’ve progressed to become a senior development engineer, concentrating more on module testing, cooling and thermal performance.
“I also help oversee the battery packs used in the British Touring Car Championship (one of Europe’s most famous motor racing categories) which moved to hybrid power a couple of years ago. When the packs come through my department we need to ensure they are all equal in performance before they go out.”
Rebecca has some sound advice for young people – particularly girls at secondary school – when it comes to their futures and the world of work.
“I’d say I’ve got where I am by wanting to learn constantly and taking any opportunity to build my knowledge. I think that has led to me being able to do different roles which businesses like.
“My main rule is if I’m not learning I get bored! I’ve always wanted to be technically good and to have an in-depth knowledge of a system that I’m working with – I want to be the ‘go-to’ person on that system.
“When you’re at school and thinking about what you want to do it can feel like the most important thing in your life. If you want to do something, then give it a go – don’t be afraid to go for it.
“In engineering there is still an imbalance of numbers when it comes to female engineers. I was in a minority at uni but I never felt any difficulty or barrier.
“A lot of people on Sunday evenings can go ‘oh no, it’s back to work tomorrow’. I’ve never experienced that. It’s a dream to have a job you fundamentally enjoy.”
