Autosport Williams Engineer of the Future Award finalists announced

The new annual prize will name an engineering student from a UK university as a rising star of F1 engineering and support them with an accelerated career development programme at Williams.

The winner will be formally announced at this year's Autosport Awards in London on December 6.

Following an application process involving eight of the UK's leading universities, the star engineering students from each were nominated for consideration.

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 November 18-19.

They are Andrew Lightbody (University of Bath), Callum Frith (Imperial College London), Oisin Scolard (Oxford Brookes University), Elizabeth Thompson (University of Oxford), and James Nurse (Loughborough University).

In the workshop the finalists will complete a number of tasks designed to test their engineering knowledge, teamwork, problem solving skills and personality fit.

The students will be assessed by a panel of judges led by Williams F1 chief technical officer Pat Symonds, also featuring Williams HR director Nicola Salter, Autosport magazine editor Edd Straw, and former Jaguar F1 team principal Tony Purnell, who is now the Royal Academy of Engineering visiting professor at the University of Cambridge.

"This exciting new initiative is designed to identify the UK's brightest and best engineering students and give them a head start towards a career in Formula 1," said Symonds.

"The calibre of applications we received at the initial essay stage was remarkable and we had a tough time getting our applications down to the final five.

"We have an exceedingly bright and motivated group who will be visiting Williams in the coming weeks.

"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."

The winner will be offered an initial two-year placement at Williams, where they will be mentored by senior engineers and rotate through various areas of the team before they find their specialism.

During the placement they will also get the chance to work in the team's race operations division and gain experience at a grand prix.