My name is Ricardo Mitterer and currently I am a student at the Monlau Repsol Technical School and at the Montanuniversität in Austria. Since I am 15 years old, I have been working for different motorsport related companies besides school and my bachelor’s degree. I began as a mechanic at a local Ducati dealer and soon after I started motorcycle racing on a national level. During my bachelor’s degree I switched to KTM to work as a test rider in the research and development department. That job satisfied both of my desires, riding motorcycles and developing new parts.
The master degrees at my university did not quite offer me what I was aiming for. Therefore, I started looking for an alternative which would fulfil my desires and open the door to enter the world of motorsport as an engineer. I discovered the Online Master studies of Monlau Repsol Technical School and as soon as I had read through its description, I knew that this is the kind of education I was looking for.
I enrolled for the combined Master, which covers race motorbikes and race cars and I would recommend that to everyone who wants to do it. You can always use the acquired knowledge in both specialities, and you can get an even deeper understanding of vehicle dynamics, data acquisition and more subjects. During the program I worked with the most common software packages in motorsport and got an extensive training combined with very good mentoring. The course is perfectly timed in advance for the whole year. For this reason, it is not a problem to combine it with other activities.
I also had the chance to visit the school directly in Barcelona and to spend a day of testing with the motorcycle school team at the Calafat circuit. I was able to talk to race engineers, who work in the World Championship and to ask them whatever had come to my mind. We discussed the importance of a track walk with the rider, talked about setup possibilities and how to analyse and interpret the gathered data of the test. To make that experience was just amazing!
I am going to finish my studies in October 2020 and afterwards I want to work in a motorsport team or in a company which has a motorsport development department. With the combined skills gathered during the master studies I will have the best chances to get employed in that industrial sector.
Finally I am glad that I found my way thanks to Monlau Repsol Technical School and that I got there the perfect learnings for a motorsport enthusiast like me.
Sincerely,
Ricardo Mitterer – Student and Test Rider at Leoben Austria
