Coventry Academy Student Team, crowned F1 in Schools UK Champions, winning a place in the world finals in Malaysia

Published 5th April 2017

Coventry Academy Student Team, crowned F1 in Schools UK Champions, winning a place in the world finals in Malaysia

A great day was spent at the F1 in Schools Championships at Silverstone where we were privileged to see so many young people passionate about design and technology and applying that knowledge to building F1 cars!

Julie Nugent, Chief Executive of the Design & Technology Association commented that “The event was packed out and it was particularly pleasing to see such a high standard of technical skills but also strong team-work, impressive presentation skills and the ability to use initiative and think on your feet.”

Previous winners spoke about the opportunities they have enjoyed – with many going on to great engineering and design careers. Julie said that she “was also delighted to see so many young women participating too. Well done to all those who got to the finals – and good luck to the winning UK team as they take their skills to Malaysia for the International Final.”

Academy Racing, a team of four 15 – 17 year old students from WMG Academy for Young Engineers in Coventry were crowned F1 in Schools UK Champions 2017 at Silverstone yesterday, an accolade that is a proven stepping stone to a career in Formula 1.  Their success won the team a place at this year’s F1 in Schools STEM Challenge World Finals that will be held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, two £5000 per year bursaries for a Mechanical Engineering degree course at UCL Engineering, a Denford Router to the value of £10,000 for their school and tickets for the 2017 FORMULA 1 BRITISH GRAND PRIX courtesy of Silverstone including an exclusive F1 paddock tour hosted by F1 in Schools.

The UK Champions were joined on the podium by second placed Tiro Racing from Kingston College, Kingston-upon-Thames, a team of apprentices who will represent England at the 13th World Finals, and third placed team, Unity from Emmanuel College, Gateshead, who have the opportunity to form an international collaboration team to compete at the Malaysia World Finals. The Team GB contingent for the World Finals is completed with the Scotland Champions, Volcan from Aberdeen Grammar School and Wales Champions, Falcon Force, from Ysgol Bryrefail. 

17 year old Eddie Hodierne, Team Manager for Academy Racing, led Elias Khimasia, 15, Callum Kennedy, 16 and Abi Hirons, 16 to victory. Eddie said after being crowned Champions, “We’ve worked so hard for this, so it feels great to have won, but it was very unexpected. We have a mix of experience, with me having been to the Nationals three times, but never making it to the World Finals. We get along really well, we improved our presentations and I think that’s how we won. Persistence, giving up all our social time and total dedication to the competition has really paid off for us.”

F1 in Schools UK Development Class Finals was fought by 11 teams, with Origin from Robert May’s School in Odiham, Hampshire, taking victory and winning through to the World Finals. All the students in the Development and Professional Classes rounded off their competition day with an experience of a lifetime, an exclusive Silverstone Grand Prix circuit track lap in their school minibuses led by former BBC Topgear STIG, Ben Collins, in a Ferrari 488 GTB supercar, courtesy of Ferrari.

Andrew Denford, Founder and Chairman of F1 in Schools said of this year’s event, “Every year we see the teams raising their game, whether it’s the pit displays, the car designs or the portfolios. This year, for the first time, one of the teams, Unity, scored 100% across the board in their verbal presentation, so we’ve seen the standard reach perfection in that judging element. Academy Racing are well-deserved winners, having persevered for a few years and finally making it to the top step of the podium. All the students put a tremendous amount of work into the competition and have shown that there is plenty of engineering talent in the UK, ready to be guided into industry careers. The competition also gives students life skills and experiences that will always be beneficial for them and we’re proud to play a small part in their career paths and future success.”

Autodesk commented that they are seeing a large increase in competing teams on a year by year basis but it would be fantastic to see even more UK schools taking part, and to support this Autodesk offers not only free software to all schools, students and teachers, but also comprehensive learning materials for all levels at www.autodesk.com/f1inschools.

Matthew Bell from Autodesk commented “The F1 in Schools UK Final, yet again left me truly inspired by the incredible work on display, and commitment from the future leaders of UK industry. As the Global CAD and CFD Partner of F1 in Schools, Autodesk is always excited by the professional quality of the designs being produced, and by using software such as Fusion 360 the teams are able to cover allelements of the design and make process from modelling of the car, to incredible rendering, 3D Printing and CNC machining.” 

Matthew goes on to say that “The standard is improving exponentially each year and I cannot wait to see the quality of designs at the World Finals in Malaysia later this year."

“For me, the true impact of F1 in Schools can be seen through following the paths of past competitors so it was fantastic to see a number of previous champions at the event acting as judges and offering support and guidance to the new teams.  Once such past competitor was Paul Cumner who was the design engineer for the UK World Champions 2014, Colossus F1, who was not only a judge at the UK finals, but was also one of the winners in the Autodesk Design for Industry Challenge to design the race car of the future.  Paul has just been accepted to study mechanical engineering at Cambridge University and we can not wait to see the path this former F1 in Schools participant takes.”

F1 in Schools challenges students to create their own Formula 1 team which is commissioned to design, construct and race the fastest miniature Formula 1 Car of the Future; a 21cm long scale model built from a modelling block and powered by a compressed air cylinder. Each team of between three and six students creates a ‘pit’ display and showcases their work in developing their race car. At the National Finals each team brings along a pit display, their cars and portfolio, as well as having prepared a verbal presentation for the judges. The cars race on a 20 metre track, with the cars covering the distance in around one second.

The F1 in Schools National Finals take place with the assistance of a host of sponsors and supporters.  F1 in Schools thanks the Institution of Engineering and Technology, Autodesk, Denford Ltd, City, University of London, UCL Mechanical Engineering, University College London (UCL Mech Eng), Silverstone Circuit, Williams Racing, McLaren and Ferrari North Europe.

Full results: