F1 in schools

News - Nov 2

F1 in Schools is an international STEM competition where teams of up to six members design, build and race a 1:20 scale F1 car.  There are many aspects to the competition from the design of the car to the team's graphic identity, sponsorship and project management.  

Our team was comprised of six members from 10 Oak. From October last year, we prepared ourselves for the first stage of the competition - the South West Regional finals. Unfortunately, this was not a live event, however we still enjoyed watching it being streamed on YouTube. Entering the Regionals not only involved creating a car, but also a pit display, an enterprise portfolio, a design portfolio, a verbal presentation and car renders and designs.  

As pictured on the photo from left to right there are  our Resource Manager - Martin, our Finance Manager - Tejas, our Team Manager - Emma, our Design Engineer - Daniel, Manufacturing Engineer - Benjamin and at the bottom our Graphic Designer - Philip. 

Our Design and Manufacturing Engineers worked tirelessly to produce a finished car, while our Resource and Finance Managers had a real struggle gaining sponsorship.  

Our graphic designer had the difficult job of creating the perfect representation of our team, spending significant time to develop the image of us that we want to share with the world - Nebulon Racing.  

Through spending so much time with these people, we have truly made friends for life. As Team  Manager I am grateful that I got to and am going to work with this team.  This sometimes made my job harder, as I truly trust every member of my team and so it was extremely hard to disagree with them. Due to our team being incredibly diverse and our priorities and opinions being so different, we needed to find a balance that worked for everyone. I therefore want to share the top thing I learnt: sometimes  you have to decide against the opinion of someone you trust in order to move forward, even if it is difficult, as that is the job of the Team Manager. A compromise was always needed in order to have the best possible outcome.  

We have not only learnt essential skills for life and the workplace, we have also learnt the power of teamwork. 

As our Design Engineer Daniel put it: "I have learnt that the team is worth more than the sum of its parts, but it needs everybody involved to work well.”  This is extremely evident in this competition - everyone's skills must be combined for us to gain the maximum number of points. 

Of course, the highlight of the competition was the feeling when we found out we had placed second in the development class and that we are going to the National finals in Birmingham. The hard work had paid off and that was the moment when we truly felt united as a team. 

We also won 'Best Engineered Car', testament to the hard work of our design and manufacturing engineers and were nominated for best team identity and best pit display. 

We also had the single fastest race out of the South West cars that did not breach any technical regulations. You can view this race here: https://youtu.be/lGhMxrg_vMs (32m 15s). We hope to get through to the World finals. The hard work has already started, and we are already facing a huge challenge. Due to the Nationals being a live event in Birmingham, we must raise money that will contribute to costs such as the entry fee, materials for the car, travel arrangements, creating a pit display and team uniform. We have already started sending letters and we cannot wait to start a new, mutually beneficial collaboration with a new sponsor. If you feel this is something your business would love to share in, please contact us via our website. All our sponsors have full coverage on our project elements, website and social media.   

 Website: https://nebulonracing.wordpress.com/ 

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nebulon.racing/ 

Finally, we'd like to thank Mr Taylor and Miss Carter for their help and our sponsors:  Signs Express, Mantracourt and Hexner Limited for their invaluable support.  

Emma R, Year 10, Team Manager