Formula 1 has renewed its Engineering Scholarships with a clear three-year commitment via £2.4 million of funding.
That was announced alongside the publication of F1’s first social impact report, which said more than 500,000 young people from 71 countries had accessed and benefitted from F1’s educational programmes.
F1’s scholarship programme was launched in 2021 and covers full higher-education tuition fees and living costs for students from underrepresented backgrounds.
It has to date supported 48 students and its renewal means 10 new scholarships will be awarded each year up to and including the 2028/29 academic year. The students will study at the University of Strathclyde, Imperial College London, the University of Cambridge, the University of Oxford, and the Motorvehicle University of Emilia-Romagna (Muner) in Italy.
One first-year F1 engineering scholar at the University of Oxford was quoted as saying: “Words cannot describe how much this scholarship has changed my life.
“The ability to pay for all the costs of Oxford has been a key reason that my first year has been successful; I have been able to focus on my course without having to worry about whether I can afford my next meal.
“I would like to say a massive thank you to the donors and board of management; I hope to make the most of my time at university, and through the scholarship I am much more capable of doing so.”
The report said that all 24 host grands prix had facilitated social outreach programmes, as had each of last year’s 10 teams in addition to F1 and the FIA.
Among the other highlights in the report were the launch of F1’s Learning Sectors programme, in partnership with the British Council, which was rolled out across schools in the UK, South Africa, India and Brazil upon its launch in January of last year.
This “cross-country” learning initiative included STEM-inspired projects and coding competitions to help students – aged seven to 16, and intentionally drawn from underrepresented backgrounds – develop computational thinking skills.
F1 said more than 150,000 students from 700-plus schools had taken part in the programme, which across 2026 and 2027 is due to expand into China, Mexico, and Spain – taking in another 250,000 students.
On a smaller but more targeted scale, The Next Grand Prix – launched in 2022, in partnership with the Social Mobility Business Partnership charity – has given students the opportunity to pitch a new F1 location in a competitive environment.
This has given more than 600 students placements since its launch – 126 of those came in 2025 – and won F1 the Innovation Award at the UK Social Mobility Awards, with one of its alumni now a management consultant trainee associate at ‘Big Four’ accounting firm PwC.
