St Bede’s race against the world

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10 May 2016

St Bede’s College in Mentone has a place on the grid for the F1 in Schools Technology Challenge World Finals in Austin, Texas.St Bede's F1 racers: Joel Bright, Will Clifton and Peter Russell
 

F1 in Schools is the largest and most successful science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) based challenge of its kind in the world, with over 20 million students from 40 countries battling it out to be crowned world champions.

Students have to design, manufacture, test and race miniature F1 cars powered by compressed air canisters, built and analysed using industry standard technology. And just like real FI teams, the schools also have to seek sponsorships from interested businesses to fund their campaign.

The aim of the challenge is to inspire students to take up careers in engineering and students have the chance
to win a scholarship to study engineering at the prestigious
London City University.

St Bede’s College first took part in the 2013 challenge and last year at the Victorian State Finals under the banner Terminal Velocity won a place at the National Finals in Sydney. There was no rest over the Christmas holidays for team members Joel Bright, Will Clifton and Peter Russell, and the hard work paid-off with a fourth place finish and the Best Team Marketing award.

The top three teams automatically win through to the World Finals but initial disappointment was replaced with great joy when Team Velocity was given a wild card invitation to Texas in October.

Joel, Will and Peter say there is a lot of hard work ahead as they prepare to ‘be the best in the US’.