Hailing from Zimbabwe and living in the UK since 2004, Stephanie Travers is a PETRONAS Trackside Fluid Engineer for the Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 team. At just 25-years-old, Travers’ life changed dramatically last year when she was selected from 7 000 entrants globally to join the six-time world championship winning team and provide them with a comprehensive suite of fluid support services.

As guest speaker at the Engen Talks Lubricants webinar on 3 June, Travers shared the inside track about her position, her passion for motorsports and the PETRONAS Syntium lubricants range, available exclusively at Engen and their authorised distributors.  

“As a Trackside Engineer, I analyse the engine oil (PETRONAS Syntium), gearbox oil (PETRONAS Tutela), and the fuel (PETRONAS Primax) throughout the F1 race weekend. 

“I do the fuel analysis to ensure that we’re complying with FIA regulations, to check that there is no contamination in the fuel drums, and that there’s no carryover if we’ve changed the spec of fuel,” explains Travers. 

Working for the global energy giant PETRONAS, the title sponsors for the Mercedes AMG F1 team, means that Travers and the rest of the F1 team continually push the boundaries of innovation. 

“Working together and responding to the team’s key requirements enabled us to become six-time double world champions last year,” says the Chemical Engineering garduate. “This was not easy to achieve and on average, during a race weekend, we worked 70-80 hours.” 

As a subsidary of PETRONAS, Engen leverages PETRONAS’ lubricant technology and global know-how to deliver high-performance PETRONAS Syntium crankcase engine oil to the South African and sub-Saharan African markets, as well as various other PETRONAS lubricant and functional fluid products. 

It also enables Engen to offer global technical services, which assist individuals and businesses in choosing the correct lubricant products for automotive and industrial applications. 

“We are extremely proud of Engen’s partnership with PETRONAS Lubricants International (PLI), which provides us with access to global technology and innovations,” says Adnaan Emeran, Engen Lubricants Marketing and Business Development Manager.

Stephanie holds a BEng in Chemical Engineering with Industrial Studies from the University of Bradford, and an MSc in Advanced Chemical Engineering from Imperial College London.