Tyler James Alexander Scholarship

The Tyler James Alexander Scholarship has been set up by Founder Jane Nottage in memory of her late partner, Tyler James Alexander. Tyler was a founding member of the McLaren Racing Team in 1963, when he joined Bruce McLaren and Teddy Mayer in creating the team.

Tyler achieved huge success in the Can-Am Championship, his technical ability embracing five Constructors’ Championships between 1967 and 1971. He was the McLaren Team Boss in the Indy 500 series and led McLaren to its Indy 500 victories in 1974 and 1976, with driver Johnny Rutherford. Tyler had a rare ability to embrace hands-on engineering with knowledge of the past while always looking to the future.

In the early 1990s, as McLaren’s Special Projects Manager, Tyler was a central figure in key technical innovations, such as the development of the semi-automatic gearbox. In his career, Tyler worked alongside the likes of Roger Penske, Paul Newman and Carl Haas, Martin Whitmarsh, Ayrton Senna, Lewis Hamilton, Adrian Newey, Paddy Lowe, Ross Brawn and many others.

Tyler’s skills as an engineer were underpinned by his personal ethics - teamwork, attention to detail, an ability to rise to any challenge and an unquenchable thirst for victory. His legacy lives on through the Tyler James Alexander Scholarship, along with a large collection of his notebooks, records, drawings and photograph collection. The photographs form a major resource now housed with LAT. These amazing materials are available for study by the TJA Scholarship Scholar.

Immediately after studying the master’s degree, the Scholar will have the unparalleled experience of two 3-month internships.

The first internship will be at McLaren Racing within their Heritage and Testing Previous Car programme. This will give hands on experience of being part of a globally successful winning racing team, enriching learning in the TPC environment while attending tests and shakedowns. This develops not just engineering skills, but personal skills of leadership, teamwork, focus, striving for excellence and embracing all the values that Tyler represented throughout his life. These values were very important in Tyler’s success in his personal and professional life and as a mentor, guiding young engineers in their careers.

Having completed the internship at McLaren Racing, the scholar will have the opportunity to spend three further months working at Penske Racing in the USA. Tyler worked with Roger Penske, who has since built a truly amazing organisation driven to succeed at the highest level. Penske Racing will add perspective and international depth to the scholar’s experience, broadening their network and providing unique contacts to start a career in the motorsport industry.

An essential aspect of the Scholarship programme is Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI). We want to give opportunity and support to those individuals who are under-represented within the motorsport community. Any talented, bright and motivated individual who can demonstrate the technical aptitude to start the MSc should apply regardless of culture, class or personal identity.