University Technical College students saw some roaring successes at the F1 in Schools Secondary National Final in Rotherham earlier this month.
Unity Racing from Scarborough UTC placed second in the overall competition, beaten only by Leaf1 from Simon Langton Grammer School in Canterbury.
Unity team member Billy said after the first day of the two-day tournament that he had “experienced a rollercoaster of emotions” but was happy with how the team had performed.
His team was one of nine sent by UTCs to compete in F1 in Schools, which tasks students with designing a car and putting together a pit display to impress a judging panel of industry professionals.
Alongside Scarborough UTC’s four teams were groups of students from Crewe Engineering and Design UTC, Ron Dearing UTC, Silverstone UTC and UTC Norfolk.
It was an incredibly successful day for UTCs, with Silverstone UTC student Sofia Mattacola-Westley winning the Girls on Track Award and UTC Norfolk making the final on their debut year in the competition.
Ron Dearing UTC’s team Ron Racing also scored the second-fastest development time overall, which they were rightly pleased with.
One student, Katelin of Team Supernova from UTC Norfolk, said the judges were impressed with how her team had linked their display with their team values and with how they had included information on how the students are supporting younger year groups into the competition.
Heidi from Ron Racing, who was involved in the competition last year and came back to advise this year’s team, said she was “really happy” with their level of teamwork.
F1 in Schools provides students with an experience of many different subjects and career paths. During their work with a team, they develop an understanding of marketing, fundraising, financial management, as well as technical skills such as using computer aided design (CAD) software and computer numerical controlled (CNC) machines.
After competing in regional and national competitions, the very best teams will now be progressing onto the F1 in Schools World Final which will next take place in Singapore in September.
