Vitesse, a student team from Latymer Upper School, Hammersmith, designed a speedy race car in the London & South East Regional Final of the acclaimed F1 in Schools STEM Challenge, winning them a place at the National Finals being held in two weeks time. The competition challenges students to prepare business plans, design, analyse, make, test and race a scale model Formula 1 race car.
The F1 in Schools™ STEM Challenge UK National Finals will showcase high flying talent, with 48 student teams competing for the F1 in Schools UK Champions title and a place at the World Finals later this year. The event being held from 11 – 12 March at Airbus’ West Factory in Broughton, Flintshire, where wings for the company’s entire family of commercial aircraft are manufactured, will celebrate the best young minds and engineering flair.
Winning student teams from regional finals around the country will race their bespoke designs of miniature Formula 1 cars on the Official F1 in Schools 20 metre track, present their business plans, display their engineering designs and showcase their work to a panel of industry and engineering experts. The two-day competition tests their F1 car designs to the limit on track, as well as the students supporting work with a busy timetable of judging sessions.
The team of six 16 and 17 year olds,Hudson Dichtl, Phillip Jiang, Cameron Walton, Josh Griffith, Luke Patterson and Kassim Nurmohamed are keen to be competing again. Team Manager, Hudson, says, “We put in a lot of work and hoped to win a place at the National Finals and for this we need to review the regulations and make sure our car complies with them. We need to refine the work we’ve done now and up our game for the next stage. It’s a great experience if you want to go into engineering, but the management side is really useful too.”
The UK Champions will win tickets to the FORMULA 1 BRITISH GRAND PRIX, including exclusive paddock access at the event from Formula 1, a Formula 1 team factory tour, two £5,000 scholarships for UCL Mechanical Engineering and, for the winning school, a F1 Branded Race Track and Race Control System with Car Deceleration System worth £5,000 from Denford Ltd.
The elite of the UK National Finals teams will be rewarded with a place at the F1 in Schools World Finals 2019. These students compete for the coveted F1 in Schools World Champions trophy, and highly valued City, University of London and University College London Engineering scholarships.
Andrew Denford, Founder and Chairman, F1 in Schools, said, “We’ve had an exceptionally strong series of regional finals with outstanding car designs, innovative ideas and highly professional presentations, so I’m very excited to see how they all perform, and I’m sure they will all have raised their game for the National Finals. Bringing Formula 1 into the classroom with this programme really inspires the students and nurtures a passion for engineering as well as developing the students’ life skills. They all learn so much, without realising it!”
The F1 in Schools National Finals 2019 takes place with the assistance of a host of sponsors and supporters. In addition to Airbus, these are the IET, Autodesk, Denford Ltd, City, University of London and UCL Engineering.
