Zuzana Stunova is a young woman on a mission to become an aerodynamicist in Formula 1. She has a first-class degree in Aviation and loves the technical aspects of the principles used in planes; “I’m just so fascinated by lift, by drag, how the wings work.”
However, Zuzana knows that aviation is not the right industry for her and wants to become an aerodynamicist in motorsport. Her grandfather raced in Motocross and she’s been watching racing since she was a child. “I’ve always liked cars and planes.”
She has sent letters and applications to different teams in the motorsport world but has so far been unsuccessful. She now wants to do a master’s degree in Mechanical Engineering to gain the knowledge she knows she needs to be properly qualified for the job she wants to do.
Her determination is apparent in every goal she talks about wanting to achieve. In recent months she’s had setbacks on her journey to gain more knowledge and experience, but she is nowhere near finished achieving what she wants to achieve, and she has the strength of character to know “it’s not going to be rejections forever”.
“The only way you can overcome [adversity] is to keep trying,…to connect with people and keep sending emails because in the end someone’s going to say yes.”
“Say if I applied to 100 teams and 100 teams reject me, you can’t just stop there, you have to think outside the box.”
Zuzana has a hunger for knowledge and a love of all things technical. She is also deeply interested in others, so much so that I think she asked me just as many questions as I asked her!
I hope Zuzana’s strength and determination can inspire others like her to keep persevering, just as she has inspired me to do the same.
“Zuzana recently got in touch with me to ask for advice about how she can break into the world of motorsport. She certainly has the right attitude to achieve her dream career – she keeps pushing no matter what the setback or knockback, whether that’s not being able to get work experience or trying to further her study with a Masters. I wish the absolute best of luck to Zuzana and I can’t wait to watch her exciting career progression.” – Louise McGrath, Formula Careers.
You can follow along with Zuzana’s journey here:
LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/zuzana-stunova-0348b61a6/
Izzie Holman:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/izzieholman/
Wait? Girls Like F1 Too?