Sustainability - Social - Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team

At the midpoint of our Accelerate 25 programme, I reflect on our achievements to date with great pride and satisfaction.

Considering our starting point, we have made some good progress in our ambition of opening access and opportunities in our team and the wider motorsport industry to those who a few years ago would not have imagined finding a place here.

The initiatives and results outlined in this report could not have been delivered without the enthusiasm and commitment of our team members and the invaluable support, encouragement and strategic expertise of our Accelerate 25 partners.

This commitment and passion for learning shines through all of the programmes we have put in place and whilst we still have progress to make, everyone involved in Accelerate 25 can be rightly proud of their contribution to making our team and industry more inclusive and a better place to work for all.

37%
New team members joining from underrepresented groups.
17%
Female team members in our workforce
9%
Minority ethnic group team members YTD June 2023

Our EDI Strategy

Accelerate 25 is our five-year programme of action to make our team even more diverse and inclusive.

Launched in December 2020, Accelerate 25 expresses our determination to do better and enable us to embed EDI at the heart of our team.

We strongly believe that a more diverse and inclusive team will not only make us faster on the track, but also inspire others in our industry and beyond.

Through Accelerate 25, we are working to deepen our understanding, develop our processes, provide education opportunities, raise awareness and improve the accessibility of Formula One to those from under-represented backgrounds.

By embedding EDI in all that we do, we believe we will access new talent pools, unlock enhanced innovation, productivity and performance.

We have pledged to continuously improve our efforts to attract and retain diverse talent, with an ambition to exceed 25% of all new employees coming from under-represented groups every year until the end of 2025.

We remain conscious that we are still at the start of our journey to make our team more diverse and inclusive. Our commitment to Accelerate 25 is steadfast, and we will continue to be transparent about our progress and open to how we can improve further along the way.

Strengthening Our Team

In 2023, Hiran Odedra joined our team as Head of Equality, Diversity and Inclusion. Hiran has over 20 years of EDI experience across a range of sectors and her specialist expertise will further strengthen our efforts to enhance Accelerate 25 in the years to come.

I am really excited to be part of a team that has made such a strong commitment to EDI. Through our Accelerate 25 programme we have already made positive steps in embedding EDI in all we do at our team and encouraging others in our industry to do the same.

Hiran Odedra, Head of Equality, Diversity and Inclusion

Building Awareness and Understanding

To ensure inclusion is embedded within our team, we provide a range of training, engagement and awareness initiatives to encourage our team members to enhance their understanding and to feel able to share their ideas and experiences to help shape our EDI journey.

Dignity at Work training.
Accelerate Inclusion workshop for all team members.
Bespoke recruitment and selection training for recruiting managers.
EDI calendar to raise awareness of religious events and festivals throughout the year.
Lunch & Learn sessions on topics such as: Ethics of Ethnic Diversity, LGBTQ+ Awareness, Neurodiversity.
Team Talks led by key voices supporting EDI topics including, Donna Fraser, four-time Olympian OBE, Richard Morris, Racing Pride CEO and Co-founder, and Helen Butters, Ocean Rower.

Building Our Community

EDI Forum

Our EDI Forum, composed of team member volunteers from a diverse range of backgrounds, meets regularly to promote our inclusive culture.

Forum members provide their experiences and insights to assist with the team’s efforts to help embed and raise awareness of EDI topics and issues, and to encourage allyship.

In October 2022, our Forum helped to create an internal Inclusion video, introduced by Toto Wolff, to help answer questions around inclusive behaviour within our working environment. The Forum shared examples of behaviours they had personally experienced and gave suggestions on how all team members could help create a greater sense of belonging.

The Women’s Network

In August 2022, a group of our female Team members established the Women’s Network with the aim of creating a dedicated space where all female team members could connect, learn and grow.

The Women’s Network provides a platform for members to share their experiences, draw inspiration and collaborate to achieve their objectives, with membership now including over 60% of our female team members.

With support from the team, our Women’s Network has held several successful events over the last twelve months including from exclusive sessions with high-profile women in sport, inspirational internal role models and wider networking events.

LGBTQ+ Forum

In March 2023, we created a LGBTQ+ Forum for our team members from the LGBTQ+ community and allies within the team to come together, create a community and raise awareness. The group regularly meets to share experiences and ideas to promote LGBTQ+ awareness and further help create a culture of inclusion within our team.

Pride Month Our second annual celebration of Pride Month took place in June 2023 to show our commitment to those team members within the LGBTQ+ community and to raise awareness of the importance of being an ally.

With the consultation and support of our LGBTQ+ Forum, a programme of activities was planned for the month with priority on education, awareness and meaningful impact.

Team-wide workshop on allyship hosted by Racing Pride.
Film night showing Love Simon, chosen by our LGBTQ+ Forum members.
Mercedes Pride Star featured on our car and driver helmets for the Spanish, Canadian and Austrian Grands Prix.
Special Pride Month edition of our weekly digital newsletter containing educational resources and highlighting opportunities to become involved over the month.

International Women in Engineering Day

We were pleased to extend our official sponsorship of International Women in Engineering Day for the sixth consecutive year, supporting the work of the Women’s Engineering Society to attract more women into engineering-based roles.

To celebrate INWED 2023, we hosted a series of events to raise awareness and help educate the next generation of young girls and women about STEM.

Our Women’s Network hosted an interactive workshop ‘Nervous System 101: Staying composed & effective at work’, led by somatic coach Jenni Schanschieff, to learn more about the science behind the female nervous system and came away with strategies and tools to help perform at the highest level in challenging situations.
We welcomed 40 Girl Guides and Brownies from our local community to the Silverstone Interactive Museum to discover the world of motorsport and STEM. Given free range of the exhibition space, the girls were able to explore the engines, brakes and tyres of a Formula One car, see our drivers’ suits and helmets close up, and learn about prominent female racing drivers in motorsport history.
We hosted the Stemettes at our Brackley campus for a networking event to give their young attendees an opportunity to learn from our STEM role models and increase their awareness of STEM subjects and career opportunities

Accelerate 25 Partnerships

We are proud to be working together with our Accelerate 25 partners whose advice and support has enabled us to listen, learn and grow our understanding in their areas of expertise.

Together, we are working to inspire and motivate talented students from under-represented groups towards STEM education, both at school and in further education, and onwards to technical careers in science, technology and engineering fields.

Mulberry Schools Trust

A partnership between our team and the Mulberry Schools Trust, the Mulberry STEM Academy is an extracurricular provision for learning, inspiration, and innovation.

Students from the ages of 7-18 are encouraged to develop their passion and aptitude for STEM subjects, based on a carefully designed programme including imaginative teaching, career coaching, mentorship and industry experience.

In 2024

We congratulated the third cohort of the Mulberry STEM Academy at a graduation ceremony hosted at Mulberry UTC in East London.

In 2023

114 new STEM enthusiasts started their STEM Academy journey in January.
24 students took part in a one-week work experience placement at our Brackley campus.
100 students took part in careers conferences with our team across five Mulberry schools.

In 2022

107 students graduated from the STEM Academy.
24 students took part in a one-week work experience placement at our Brackley campus.
40 students competed in the Mulberry Greenpower project, supported by our Team members.

In 2021

48 students graduated from the STEM Academy.
50 students took part in three careers conferences to network with our Team members.
10 students took part in a one-week work experience placement at our Brackley campus.

STEMettes

The Stemettes are an award-winning UK social enterprise who work to inspire the next generation of girls, young women, and non-binary young people into STEM fields.

Through our relationship with the Stemettes, we have been fortunate to engage with many young women and girls on initiatives ranging from the Student to Stemette mentoring programme to the Agile Certification Academy.

In 2023, we hosted three career insights days at our Brackley campus for over 100 young women and non-binary people aged 16 -25. These events provided the opportunity to learn from our STEM role models and increase their awareness of STEM subjects and career opportunities.

Further events are planned with the Stemettes this year to continue to inspire and engage the next generation in STEM.

AFBE-UK

ABFE-UK works to inspire people of Black and minority ethnic origin to study engineering, supporting those who aspire to be engineers, promoting engineering in schools, and aiming to increase diversity within the UK's engineering workforce.

Working together with AFBE-UK, we aim to build awareness and access to future engineering roles, particularly with our team, for Black and minority ethnic engineers. In October 2024, we were delighted to kickstart our next six-month mentorship programme between team members and students from AFBE-UK.

We were also pleased to welcome Dr Ollie Folayan to the team in May 2023 for a Lunch and Learn session on the Ethics of Ethnic Diversity as we continue our learning and awareness raising initiatives for our team members.

In 2023, we were proud to be the platinum sponsor of the 2023 AFBE-UK Diversity and Inclusion Awards.

The Sutton Trust

The Sutton Trust works to tackle social mobility issues by improving access to high-quality education and employment opportunities, focusing on high academic performing students from lower socio-economic backgrounds.

Our partnership with the Sutton Trust will see us focusing together on three key strategic areas:

Pathways to Engineering
Careers Events
Educational Summer Schools

In March 2024, we hosted the first half of the 2024 Pathways to Engineering cohort at our factory for a week of work experience.

We look forward to hosting Sutton Trust students for work experience at our Brackley campus in July 2023, along with future career events and educational summer schools over the coming year.

Business Disability Forum

The Business Disability Forum work to create a disability-smart world, removing barriers that prevent disable people from thriving and contributing within business structures.

We continue to work in partnership with the Business Disability Forum and are working closely with them to learn and grow our understanding of how best to support their work.

We are also reviewing our processes and procedures to ensure they are more inclusive and that our disabled team members have access to appropriate support within our organisation. Accessibility will be a key part of the design in our future campus vision plans.

Inclusive Employers work with our team to provide guidance, support and participation in a wide range of EDI events to help upskill members of our team.

Grace Influential Positive Impact Award

In May 2023, the team was presented with the first-ever Grace Influential Positive Impact Award in Monaco, in recognition of our Accelerate 25 programme.

Toto Wolff said: "We were very pleased to be the recipients of the first Princess Grace Positive Impact Award. There is a lot of great work happening across Formula One and the motorsport industry to make our sport more accessible and I am very proud of how our Accelerate 25 programme has helped to highlight this journey and give inspiration to others to follow our path to creating a more inclusive environment for all."

Charity and Community

Official Team Charity

Our Official Team Charity for 2023 – 2024 is Mind. Mind is the nation’s leading mental health charity, providing advice and support to empower people experiencing mental health problems, while also campaigning to improve services, raise awareness, and promote understanding around mental health issues.

As our Official Team Charity, a key focus of our relationship is to raise vital funds, helping Mind to continue the incredible work they do to support those with mental health problems.

Much of the fundraising for our Official Team Charity is completed by our team members through a vast range of activities. Our fundraising net has been cast far and wide since the start of our partnership, and our team members have now helped to raise over £20,000 for Mind to date.

Community Outreach

Our home is located in the Northamptonshire market town of Brackley, and we have been proud to support our local community since our site first opened in 1998.

Over the last year, we have:

Arranged grants for several local schools to support their STEM learning provision
Supported the Brackley Food Bank with funding, so they can continue to assist the most vulnerable members of the local community with food parcels and toiletry care packages
Worked with the Brackley Elves to support Brackley’s lowest income families over the festive period
Organised for members of South Northants Youth Engagement and pupils from Magdalen College School to talk STEM with Tim Peake, during his visit to our factory

We also work closely with Brackley Town Council to sponsor and assist in the organisation of major community events such as the Brackley Firework Display.

Education Outreach

Creating a positive impact within our local community matters to our team, and supporting local schools and educational initiatives is just one way that we try and make a difference.

Some of our support has included:

Donating laptop devices to local primary and secondary schools to enhance STEM learning
Organising team member presentations to engage students in motorsport and the varied career paths that racing can offer
Arranging signed memorabilia for local Parent Teacher Association events to raise funds for new learning facilities
Involving local students in our employee engagement events to gain industry experience
Inviting local girl guides to exclusive STEM learning events at our factory and the Silverstone Museum

F1 in Schools

We are proud to have been active supporters of the F1 in Schools programme for the last decade, with many of our team members having taken part during their own school years.

F1 in Schools is an international not-for-profit STEM challenge which sees students aged 9 to 19 work as a team to design, manufacture, and race miniature air-powered cars.

We were pleased to support the ‘Fastest Car Award’ at the F1 in Schools World Finals 2023 by providing a bespoke trophy designed and created by our in-house Heritage and Composites teams. Congratulations to Shanghai Pinghe School’s ‘Intercosmic’, who were crowned the winners of the award!

Corporate Donations

We are proud to have supported over 100 international, national, and local causes in 2023 via the donation of hand-signed memorabilia, behind-the-scenes factory tours, and exclusive trackside hospitality and garage visits for auctions, raffles, and prize draws.

Signed memorabilia raised £3750 for Macmillan Cancer Support
Behind-the-scenes factory tour raised £5500 for the Pelorus Foundation
Behind-the-scenes factory tour, exclusive trackside hospitality experience and signed memorabilia raised £15,600 for the Grand Prix Trust

Grand Prix Trust

Founded by Sir Jackie Stewart, the Grand Prix Trust provides support for Formula One’s unsung heroes, helping team personnel and the employees of the sport’s direct supply chain put their lives back on track when things go wrong.

We are proud to be active supporters of the Trust, helping to raise £15,600 for the charity in 2023. The Trust visits our Brackley site every season to allow team members to learn more about their services and the assistance available, and they have a presence at our annual Summer Fun Day too.

Environmental

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