Young Erebus engineer gets overseas opportunity

After rising through the ranks quickly at Erebus, a special opportunity awaits in the UK for data engineer Tom McCausland.

McCausland is making the big move to complete a Masters of Motorsport Engineering course at Oxford Brookes University, which has close connections with F1 giants McLaren, Red Bull and Mercedes.

It comes just a year and a half since his very first Supercars event, at the 2022 Adelaide 500, where he was “chucked in the deep end” before finishing his exams.

But he loved it and grew under the junior data engineer role to become a big part of the team’s championship success last year before stepping up to the senior data engineer position this year.

Following the rapid rise, McCausland is now excited to see what is possible at the home of some of the biggest teams in the world after fulfilling duties at the upcoming Tasmania SuperSprint.

“It was sort of the next natural step,” he told AUTO ACTION.

“It is a pretty cool thing and one of only a handful of Australian students selected and the university has good relationships with McLaren, Red Bull, Mercedes and Hyundai WRC.

“The buzz of the racing weekend will hit me more when I am in a big lecture hall thinking this is a lot quieter and slower.

“My time at Erebus is something that will stick with me for the rest of my life.”

However, the departure of McCausland leaves Erebus searching for a new data engineer.

With McCausland and #9 engineer Tom Moore proving the Erebus environment provides opportunities for young engineers to flourish, Erebus CEO Barry Ryan is looking forward to providing a pathway for the next one.

“If they have the want and the will to be involved in motorsport, that is what is most important,” Ryan said.

“It is great that we want to give more people opportunities and find the next Tom Moore and Tom McCausland.

“One of the strengths of Erebus is being able to foster and develop young talent, turning them into winners.

“Tom (McCausland) was straight out of university when he joined us here and he learned on the job very well and very quickly.

“It’s disappointing to be losing such a great young person in Tom, but that’s part of what we do here at Erebus, and so yes we are looking for someone that has aspirations to join the team and climb the ladder and even do something like being a race engineer in the future.”

Hopefuls can apply for the position by contacting [email protected]

Image: Supplied

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