In the Term 2 break Team Aqueous, a collaboration between Newington College and Blue Mountains Grammar School, competed in the F1 in Schools World Finals. This involved the team working together to create the fastest possible miniature Formula 1 car.
Team Aqueous consists of Newington Year 10 students Preston Zhang (Marketing and Resource Coordinator), Lukas Yee (Team Manager) and Harry Board (Design Engineer), as well as Blue Mountains Grammar students Nick Hayes (Brand Coordinator), Bill Klein (Manufacturing Engineering) and Charlie Burgess (Testing Engineer).
Originally, the Newington contingent participated in the 2021 F1 in Schools Australian National Finals as Team Aeolus and the Blue Mountains boys as PerPetrol. Team Aeolus performed brilliantly, finishing second and qualifying for the World Finals. The teams were brought together as Team Aqueous to form a strong Australian collaboration for the World Finals .
More than 17,000 teams (on average) are registered annually around the globe. This year, only 54 teams made it to the World Finals.
This is a big event. You get members of Williams Racing, Red Bull Racing and Ferrari giving tours of t heir facilities, meeting teams and (sometimes) offering jobs to aspiring young individuals. This year, the World Finals were held at the prestigious Silverstone Circuit, home to the British Grand Prix, where teams received paddock passes to watch the racing and potentially meet F1 icons such as Daniel Ricciardo or Lewis Hamilton.
Over the course of four days, there was an immense amount ofcar racing, where every team competed to get the fastest time.
It’s important to note that F1 in Schools is not just about racing cars. Just like a real F1 team, F1 in Schools teams must create a strong team brand (like Red Bull Racing), get sponsorships from companies within the STEM industry, design, construct and
showcase a pit display booth (mimicking Formula 1’s pit walls) and utilise teamwork to achieve success.
When all the points were tallied up, and all project deliverables were marked, Aqueous ended up placing 19th in the world out of 54 teams. It was also nominated for the Team Identity award, which encompassed the boys’ team brand – that is, graphics and logos. It was an incredibly fulfilling and educating experience for the boys, and it’s a sign that Newington could have many more F1 in Schools achievements in the future, so join up boys!
F1 in Schools is offered as a co-curricular at Newington for all students from Year 7 to Year 12. Held in T1 or N1 on Monday and Thursday afternoons, you get to compete against other teams by engineering, testing and manufacturing a miniature F1 car which races down a 20-metre track. The co-curricular is open to all interested in engineering, physics, motorsports, Formula 1 racing and skills involving graphic design, marketing and project management.
That sounds like a handful, but to put it simply: if you like fast cars, join F1 in Schools – you will love it.
Lukas Yee
Year 10
This article first appeared in the Autumn 2022 edition of News.
