A constant influx of money is the key to victory and the richest teams always win. Behind the glitz and glamour, team workers are put under enormous pressure to generate the cash. Jordan employs 200 people including marketing and PR teams, engineers, designers, mechanics and even a team cook. Twice a month between March and October half of the team up camp to Australia, Brazil or wherever the next race lies. Employees often complain that they have little home life.
Teams are always interested in talented graduate engineers and take many on for work experience.
Yet for those with less vocational backgrounds there is no set route. There are only 11 teams so there aren't many jobs available. I had a commercial background and wrote to Jaguar, who just happened to be looking for someone. But some press officers come from journalism and one even trained as an architect. It takes over your life and you couldn't do it if you didn't love F1.