F1 in Schools Australian National finals in Adelaide

In March of this year, fourteen students travelled to Adelaide to compete in the Australian National Final of F1 in Schools – a fast-paced, exciting and enriching competition that sees teams of 4-5 students design, manufacture and race their own miniature Formula One car. 

The trip proved to be an incredible experience for all students involved, nurturing skills and providing experience applicable to far more than the competition itself. The teams; Marino, Ngā Tūī and Aotearo1, had spent the leading months dedicating all their free time to designing their cars and refining their products to be as professional as possible in front of their Australian adversaries. 

The cars are propelled down a 20m track using compressed carbon dioxide gas canisters, at speeds around 100km/h. The teams’ engineers mastered the use of 3D modelling software and spent months perfecting the car’s aerodynamic package according to an ‘F1 style’ regulations document. Each team member has to work collaboratively, developing their creativity and critical thinking to solve the many hurdles they encountered on their way. 

A large part of the competition revolves around gathering sponsorship funds. The teams spent most of their holidays visiting companies and presenting their sponsorship pitch in the hopes of receiving funding. The competition is naturally a big challenge, but the dedication and perseverance involved leads to an incredibly rewarding resolution. All three teams learnt so much going into the Australian National Final and the knowledge gained will help in future participation in the competition as well as future careers. If there’s one thing that the students who took part in the Formula One in Schools program learnt over their several months of preparation, it is how to deal with unexpected challenges and obstacles on their journey to success. 

Experiences at the Australian National Final prompted our school to form a new team in the hopes of going to the F1iS World Competition. FERNZ was formed comprising members from all three Australian teams.  This will be the first New Zealand team to compete at this competition. The mission is to establish a national competition throughout New Zealand and to be able to offer a high-level engineering and business program to students. Any support whether large or small would be greatly appreciated on the team’s website: fernz.org.  

Written by Year 11 student Matthew Stubbs