• City professionals go head-to-head on Formula One racing simulators at Canary Wharf event<br />
• Challenged to beat lap time set by Williams F1 team driver Bruno Senna <br />
• Engineering upstages financial services, with engineers an average of 20 seconds faster per lap than bankers<br />
• Canny engineer gets most out of simulator to beat Senna’s time<br />
<br />
Engineers are the fastest movers in the City - certainly on an F1 simulator - putting the manufacturing industry firmly into second place. Engineering employees set the fastest lap time on F1 simulators at an event held by Randstad, UK sector specialist recruiter and official partner of the Williams F1 team. City professionals were given the chance to test their speed and reflexes against Bruno Senna, nephew of the legendary late Ayrton Senna and a driver for the Williams F1 team, as well as to take part in a competitive sector versus sector competition. <br />
<br />
As a sector, engineers clocked the fastest average laptime of 1.57.482, narrowly beating the 1.59.678 set by the manufacturing sector, with construction employees finishing a close third. Fast moving consumer goods workers failed to live up to their name, finishing an average of 18 seconds behind those in engineering industry. The insurance industry beat bankers by 2.865 seconds, who finished second-bottom of the pile, with a time of 2.17.528. Only the steady pace of 2.50.248 set by the care sector prevented bankers from claiming the wooden spoon in the competition.The biggest surprise of the competition came from Senna’s time of 1.47.393 being bettered by a fast-moving project manger, Attila Barnadz from civil engineering firm Vinci, who clocked a time of 1.43.837. However, Attila certainly took advantage of the full capability of the simulator, racing with traction control on and in automatic, compared to the manual mode used by the F1 driver. <br />
<br />
The event was held in marquee just outside Canary Wharf tube station in Reuters Plaza, which included a Williams team display. Guests later moved into Smollensky’s bar and restaurant - where City professionals again took on Senna on a large-scale Scalextric.Randstad clients were given the chance to meet Senna, with photo calls, autograph signing, and an informal discussion where professionals were able to find out what makes Senna tick.Tara Ricks, managing director of Randstad Financial and Professional, commented: “The lap times threw up some surprising results and confounded some of the stereotypes labelled to certain City jobs. We all know bankers work at a high-octane pace, but they couldn’t translate that speed and intensity into a winning lap time. It was engineers whose skills proved the most relevant, and who were able to clock the fastest time – clearly getting the most out of the high tech kit! “After chatting to Bruno, a number of our clients were surprised at the similarities between F1 and what it takes to be successful as a professional. Working as a team, specialist knowledge, and accuracy are all vital ingredients to a winning F1 team, just as they are in business.”