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Posted on November 2, 2012

A team of teenagers from Adelaide has won the 2012 F1 in Schools title, after three days of intense competition in Abu Dhabi.

The team of five 16 and 17 year olds from Brighton Secondary School, calling themselves Cold Fusion, beat 21 other countries and 32 teams, with two teams from the UK finishing in second and third places. The Australians collected the Bernie Ecclestone Trophy from Sahara Force India driver Nico Hulkenberg in a ceremony prior to the start of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix weekend.

This was the eighth time that F1 in Schools has held a World Championships, as the not for profit engineering challenge continues to grow worldwide, with now 40 countries involved. BBC technical expert and former F1 technical director Gary Anderson is the Chair of Judges.


Part of the prize is a Scholarship to study engineering at City University, London. The winners were introduced to the Ferrari drivers yesterday and are in the F1 Paddock today to see the F1 cars close up.

Team manager Jane Burton said, “I’m speechless. It is just awesome, an amazing day, a fantastic week and to top it all we are the World Champions. We’ve been working for this for years now and it means everything to us. Winning the City University scholarships is something we’re all very keen to take up, but for now we’re just over the moon, I don’t think it has sunk in and I think it will take a while. It’s been a very special experience and we have just loved doing F1 in Schools.“

F1 in Schools aims to help change perceptions of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) by creating a fun and exciting learning environment for young people to develop an informed view about careers in engineering, Formula One, Science, marketing and technology. Students are given a brief to design a model compressed air powered F1™ Car of the future using CAD/CAM Engineering techniques. Cars are then manufactured on a CNC machine. Each team of between three and six students brings together their portfolio of work to present to a judging panel with a verbal and written presentation to support their model car.

The cars race on a 20 metre track, with the cars covering the distance in just over one second, a speed barrier which is yet to be broken by any student team since it was set by Team FUGA from Northern Ireland at the 2007 World Finals with a time of 1.020 seconds.


  1.   1. Posted By: Pargo
        Date: November 2nd, 2012 @ 11:30 am 

    Wow, Brighton Secondary School is only a short drive from us here in Adelaide. Very proud. Well done.

    [Reply]


  2.   2. Posted By: Craig in Manila
        Date: November 2nd, 2012 @ 12:40 pm 

    JA,

    Is that the 2nd or the 3rd time that an Aussie team has won ?

    [Reply]


  3.   3. Posted By: Steve Brisbane Oz
        Date: November 2nd, 2012 @ 1:28 pm 

    Well done to all the student finalists and congratulations to those from Brighton Secondary College! That part of Oz still has a great motorsport base, we all remember the Adelaide Grand Prix.

    James, thanks for the article.
    Is there a site dedicated to this??? Entry requirements etc??

    A side bar question to other readers: My 12 year old daughter questioned why Schui is the only one with his first name [initial] on the timing charts..I assuemed this stems from when Ralph was competing???

    [Reply]

    Wayne Reply:

    Congrats to all and congrats to Australia – good to see the UK in Second and Third too!

    Schumi does indeed have his first initial as a hangover from when Ralph was racing – your daughter is brilliantly observant!

    [Reply]

    Luke Clements Reply:

    Congratulations to these Aussie youngsters. What a great competition and prize for them to win.

    My 8 year old daughter does in depth annalysis of the screen names too whenever she gets a chance to watch GP’s…must be a kid thing!:)

    [Reply]


  4.   4. Posted By: Tom in adelaide
        Date: November 2nd, 2012 @ 11:25 pm 

    Never thought i’d see my old highschool mentioned on JAonF1!

    Aussie Aussie Aussie!

    Well done to all the kids.

    [Reply]


  5.   5. Posted By: Snowy
        Date: November 3rd, 2012 @ 12:20 am 

    Well done guys and girls – way to go Adelaide. The effects the F1 GP had seem to continue on.
    What fantastic events the Adelaide GPs were, unlike any others I’ve ever attended. It really got into the DNA of the whole city. If only the Australian GP could return there one day.

    [Reply]


  6.   6. Posted By: Nadeem
        Date: November 3rd, 2012 @ 11:17 pm 

    Well done makes me an even prouder Aussie

    [Reply]


  7.   7. Posted By: Formule 1
        Date: February 6th, 2013 @ 12:22 pm 

    A new talent for the F1

    [Reply]

Leave a Reply







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