Communication studies students Charis Chua and Heng Yi-Hsin pulled ahead of thousands of other applicants to score a coveted internship at Red Bull Racing’s headquarters in the UK

by Kwok Pei Fang

Photo: Getty Images/Red Bull Content Pool

As part of their two-and-a-half-month internship, Charis and Yi Hsin are supporting the Red Bull F1 team’s hospitality and marketing efforts. HEY! gets up to speed with the duo a week into their journey.

REVVING UP FOR THEIR DREAM JOB

Thousands in Singapore vied for this to-die-for internship. What drove you to give it a shot? Have you always been a fan of F1?

Charis: I’ve wanted to work in F1 since I was 15, but it always felt like a distant dream until this internship was announced, and I knew it was the opportunity I had been waiting for. Every year since I became a fan, I would hang around the Marina Bay Street circuit just to soak in the vibes. The most thrilling moment was the first time I heard the F1 cars live during a free practice session – the sound reverberating through the streets was unlike anything I had heard before.

Yi-Hsin: I fell in love with F1 a few years ago when I went to the Singapore Grand Prix to watch one of my favourite bands perform. After the performance, I decided to stick around for the race and was immediately hooked by the thrill of the sport and the electric atmosphere in the grandstand. I’ve been following F1 ever since.

You had to ace various laps of this rigorous “internship championship”. How did your NTU education gear you up for it?

Charis: As communication studies students, we have been taught how to convey ideas in ways that most effectively reach our target audience. I think this was quite integral to our success. We knew how to communicate the aspects of our personalities that best fit what Red Bull Racing was looking for.

Charis (left) and Yi-Hsin at Red Bull’s headquarters.

Was there anything memorable about the selection process?

Yi-Hsin: I found the case study component in round three very exciting. I had the opportunity to pitch a video idea that showcased Red Bull Racing’s F1 car against Southeast Asia’s beauty and diversity.

Now that you are in the thick of the action, how do you hope to contribute to the team?

Charis: We started our stint at Red Bull Racing’s headquarters in Milton Keynes during a busy period, with the European leg of races coming back to back. I hope to provide the best support for the team by working efficiently and meticulously.

What’s your ultimate must-do during this internship?

Yi-Hsin: Seeing how large-scale events like Red Bull Racing’s promotional showruns are planned and executed.

At the Silverstone Circuit during the British Grand Prix.

ACCELERATING AHEAD

You’ve only been there a week. Any adrenaline rush yet?

Charis: We bumped into a few well-known people in the factory, like Adrian Newey, Max Verstappen and Sebastian Buemi. It’s surreal that these people I have seen on TV are literally just here and working alongside me. You can follow our adventures on Red Bull Singapore’s Instagram and TikTok (@redbullsg), where we share what we’ve learnt in the fast lane.

What has been the coolest moment?

Charis: At an exclusive factory tour, we saw all of Red Bull’s older cars from past seasons – and all 413 trophies Red Bull has won since their F1 debut. Another cool thing is that on race weekends, we can watch TV channel Sky Sports F1 to catch the on-track action while working in the office.

If you could be anyone in the team, who would you choose to be and why?

Yi-Hsin: If I’m Max Verstappen, I’d know what it feels like to be the current world champion.

What is the most fascinating piece of F1 tech that most people don’t know about?

Yi-Hsin: There’s what we call the “NASA room” at the factory, which is the operations room that has a huge floor-to-ceiling 4K screen that streams race feeds. A team there uses technology by AT&T and Oracle to carry out remote analysis to strategise for races in real time.

Have you been privy to any F1 secrets?

Charis: Even the paint used on F1 cars must be as lightweight as possible, and Red Bull Racing uses secret ingredients in their paint that other teams would be unable to reverse engineer even if they obtained a sample.

If you could design your own F1 car, what feature would it have?

Yi-Hsin: I would embellish my car with underglow lights. This feature debuted on F1 cars at a Las Vegas showrun. It looks cool!

This story was published in the Jul-Aug 2024 issue of HEY!. To read it and other stories from this issue in print, click here.