Year 10 students gain praise in National Finals of F1 in Schools UK

News - Feb 3

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, Nebulon Racing, is formed of six members from 10 Oak.  

Last week, we went to the F1 in Schools UK National Finals, after qualifying for the national round by coming second regionally in the South-West in the Development Class. This was the first live event since 2020, but livestreams of the racing are also available on YouTube.  It was held in the Birmingham NEC, which was a fantastic venue, especially due to the motorsport show being held there at the same time. Although we were too focused on the competition to fully enjoy the motorsport show we enjoyed looking round over 4 halls of cars and talking to industry experts.  

 Entering the national finals required a complete rethinking of all our project elements; we had to redesign and produce our cars, remake our engineering and enterprise portfolios, prepare a new verbal presentation, construct our pit display, and produce a set of engineering drawings and renders.  

Everybody on our team worked tirelessly on our project elements in preparation for the national finals. Our engineers spent hours improving designs and constructing two more cars, while the enterprise division coordinated sponsorship agreements, allocated resources, and refined our brand identity. 

Due to the immense level of work, the project was truly a journey. A journey is never a straight path, a calm sea or exactly according to plan. Our journey had highs and it had lows, at some points it was far from perfect. Our journey wasn't the same as anybody else's. And we didn't try to hide that. As a team we had flaws and we weren't afraid to admit that, because as a team we were also strong enough to overcome them. By admitting your failures and learning from your mistakes and weaknesses, you can truly learn as an individual and team.  

We learned that rejection isn't failure. We sent out over 120 sponsorship letters, and we got 4 fantastic sponsors. At times it felt like it wouldn't work out, but it did. Over time we learned that even the fact that someone took the time to reply is an achievement and that if we'd have never tried, we never could have succeeded.  

On the first day of the National Finals, we finished all the project elements by talking to judges to increase our points. We also had our verbal presentation. We were slightly disappointed with the outcome, as we lost points for being over time, relying on a 1-minute warning that did not take place.  

Over both days we had racing. While the majority of the team was being grilled by the interviewer, Tejas was controlling his nerves and delivered fantastic reaction results, so thank you to him.  

Daniel, our Design Engineer, explained the racing - "On the engineering side, we are very pleased with our cars' results. Across the board, every team appeared to be having slower times than in the regional finals, but we still managed to place 5th out of 19 teams in our class (discounting those disqualified for scrutineering). Between the regional and national finals, we had made a range of changes to the design, including aerodynamic improvements, construction changes, and weight optimizations.  

Based on an analysis of our races, we have concluded that there has likely been a large reduction in rolling resistance, allowing for our cars to have faster starts, but the cruising phase of our races shows that there is still plenty of room for improvement. We hope to share our knowledge with the next generation of teams, helping them go faster and further on the track." 

We managed to receive a nomination for best pit display. We had built this all ourselves for only £50 and it included a podium, an incredible light display and banners made by Signs Express, our platinum sponsor. Unfortunately, we were beaten to this award by a professionally-made steel pit display, weighing 80kg and worth £15,000. We are honoured that our pit display is compared to one made by a professional company. Furthermore, we were nominated for the Scrutineering Award, owing to both the quality of our car and the clean sheet in the scrutineering feedback, meaning we were in the top 3 in the country out of all 35 teams. Again, we narrowly missed out, being beaten by the Professional Class team , but it is an incredible achievement, due to the unbelievable work of our engineers.  

To celebrate our pit display, we talked about it on the pit interview. In both the pit and racing interviews it was a real challenge to speak confidently on the microphones.  

You can watch us here:  

Day 1 Racing (1:04:30): Lenovo F1 in Schools UK National Final 2022 Day 1 - Development & Professional Class Racing

Day 2 Racing (1:00:06): Lenovo F1 in Schools UK National Final 2022 Day 2 - Development and Professional Class Racing

Awards Show: Lenovo F1 in Schools UK National Final 2022 - Day 2 Awards Ceremony - Development and Professional

Pit Interview (13:19): F1iS NF22 Pit Interviews 

 As a team we want to thank F1 in schools for this opportunity, our fantabulous sponsors - Signs Express, Mantracourt, and Hexner Limited for their support, our incredible teachers Mr Taylor, Miss Carter and Mr Clarke, but most importantly each other.  

So, we are sad that this journey is over, but it's not farewell to Nebulon Racing, just see you later. We'll be back and so watch out world because we're coming for you.