Participants form teams of up to six people to compete in their region to produce the fastest miniature Formula 1 car. According to the F1 in Schools website, the teams ‘deploy CAD/CAM software to collaborate, design, analyse, manufacture, test, and then race miniature compressed air-powered cars made from F1 model block’.
We had two teams participate in the 2021 F1 in Schools Australian National Final (development class and professional class). Both teams spent many long hours developing their skills in design, market ing, engineering, etc. They had to gain sponsorship f rom as many companies as possible to raise money to buy T-shirts and create their display booth.
Team Aeolus (development class) won second place at the Nationals (that’s second in the whole country) and will represent Australia in the 2022 Aramco F1 in Schools World Finals at the International Conference and Exhibition Centre at Silverstone Circuit in the United Kingdom as Team Aqueous.
Aqueous is a team of nine high school students. This includes the Newington boys from Aeolus, Year 10 students Lukas Yee, Preston Zhang, Harry Board, Julian Bray and Max Amoyal, and four students from Blue Mountains Grammar School.
The 2022 Aramco F1 in Schools World Finals will take place between 9–15 July 2022 at the International Conference and Exhibit ion Cent re at Silverstone Circuit in the United Kingdom.
Originally, the boys from Blue Mountains Grammar competed in the Nationals as PerPetrol. The teams were brought together to form a strong Australian collaboration for the World Finals.
The boys are enjoying the competitiveness and collegiality of the global challenge.
‘I really loved being able to learn life skills while being surrounded by mates. I’ve met some incredible people and gained some memories I could never forget ,’ said Julian.
Our other team, Instinct (professional class), narrowly missed out on being involved in the World Finals but did exceptionally well to make the Nationals. Those boys also need to be congratulated for their tireless efforts. They are Tristan Henry, Alexander Ross, Sebastian Baudille and Dexter Young.
Ms Colleen Scalone
F1 in Schools Coordinator
This article first appeared in the Autumn 2022 edition of News.
