F1 in Schools 2009: Ireland victorious, Australia sweeps multiple awards

Irish team the Koni Kats have been crowned 2009 F1 in Schools World Champions at the award ceremony held at the Royal Horticultural Halls and Conference Centre in London. The Australian team Redline Racing has taken second, with the Australian-Canadian collaboration team AC Racing awarded third.

The Koni Kats (Ireland, First), Redline Racing (Australia, Second) and AC Racing (Australia/Canada, Third)

The two Aussie place-getters, Redline Racing, AC Racing

The evening was quite the spectacle, with F1 team bosses and technical directors making appearances along side current Formula One world drivers champion Lewis Hamilton

Redline Racing with Lewis Hamilton

 

Lewis signing the Redline Car

Redline Racing with Williams F1 technical director Sam Michael, who prior to being in charge of engineering at Williams lived and was educated in Australia, attending Radford College in Canberra and UNSW.

 

Myself with Sam Michael, he is a bit of a personal hero as a Canberra educated Engineer working as a leader in Formula One.

  

Lewis knows how to draw a crowd as he prepares to test one of the cars (he ended up hand picking the AC Racing entry). Redbull Racing technical director Christian Horner also made an appearance, as did representatives of Force India F1 with the ceremony hosted by ITV motorsport commentator James Allen (with BBC commentator Ted Kravitz still making rounds). All of the F1 celebrities were fantastic to meet, all being enthusiastic to talk to each of the teams.

Whilst disappointed not to take the top prize which included a University scholarship, the Australian teams were happy to claim multiple team awards as well as 2 of the top 3 places Each of the three Australian teams took away at least one team award, with Redline Racing awarded the Fastest Car award (and with it the England v. Australia Ashes!), and team Biohazard from Sydney being awarded best display booth.

The complete Australian related results are has follows:

• 2nd Outright – Redline Racing (Canberra)
• 3rd Outright – AC Racing (Noosa/Canada Collaboration)
• 4th Outright – Bio-Hazard (Sydney)
• Fastest Car – Redline Racing
• Best Collaboration Team – AC Racing
• Best Design Portfolio – AC Racing
• Best Pit Display – Bio-Hazard
• Australia v. England Ashes for fastest car – Redline Racing

Complete results to follow.

Congratulations to the winners and all the teams that competed in this years F1 in Schools, from International to regional competitions.

F1 in Schools 2009

Attempted journalism style post imminent… I will update this blog within the next few hours with the final results.

F1 in Schools – 2009 World Championships

The 2009 F1 in Schools World Championships held at the Royal Horticultural Hall and Conference Centre is drawing to a close!

The Redline Racing Team, from Canberra, Australia performed extremely well throughout the competition, taking out the outright quickest car and making it through to the quarter finals of the knock out reaction round, where the cars are triggered by a member of the team, in an Formula One style light guided start.

The team was also assessed on verbal presentation of their design along with marketing materials, industry collaboration, sponsorship and research. The team was also required to produce a team booth and design portfolio as well as an engineering assessment of the car design itself. The team was confident of their performance, despite a few mishaps, such someone who had become lost walking into and interrupting their verbal presentation and a couple of disordered cue-cards.

The Redline Racing Team (left to right): Annie Harper, James Mazengarb, Alistair Smith, Chris Law and Daniel Boucher with BBC Formula One commentator Ted Kravitz.

The Redline Racing Team claiming the F1 in Schools “Ashes” after leading all Australian and English schools through the speed trials. Head of F1 in Schools Australia and the Re-engineering Australia founder Michael Myers on the far left.

 

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A selection of some of the team display booths

More to come…

The Competition Begins

The 2009 F1 schools kicked off on Tuesday (15 September) at the Royal Horticultural Halls and Conference Centre in Westminster, London. This, off course was the spark for this whole journey, as my brother is a member of the Redline Racing Team, representing Australia (see below for a picture of the team at Australia House).

 

The competition as drawn 31 teams, representing 17 countries (many more are represented by individual students), with each team bringing a unique approach to the competition, their displays and the designs of their cars. The make up of the teams were equally diverse, with teams representing each continent, some teams consisted of hybrid, collaboration teams, such as partnerships between Australia and Canada, and combinations of Scotland, China, the United States, Germany and South Africa.

At the end of the first complete day of racing, Redline Racing were well placed. Originally running in second the team were elevated into first place after the previous leader was penalised for having a car that did not meet weight requirements. Each of the teams are assessed on the speed of their car, as well as verbal presentations and the quality of their display booths, with approximately equal weighting. With the fastest car on the track, the team refocused on the presentation of their team and design with a welcomed confidence boost.

The competition continues for the following three days, with the conclusion on Thursday 17 September corresponding with a visit from current Formula One world champion Lewis Hamilton!

London 2.0

As alluded to in an earlier post, I am now back in London after an enjoyable trip through Wales. I have also now met up with my Dad, as well as my brother and the rest of the F1 in Schools contingent.

Whilst the F1 group are off doing their own planned activities, I have been charged with introducing some of the London sights to Dad before we start to explore new areas of the city again and have currently made second trips to the Tower of London, Tower Bridge and through Westminster, which has worked out well as I’ve picked up places I missed the first time round (I can’t believe how close I’d gotten to Trafalgar Square without seeing it).

Above is a monument within the walls of the Tower of London, recognising those who were executed within grounds of the Tower of London itself (most were usually done externally on Tower Hill). The monument alone names Queen Anne Boleyn, Queen Catherine Howard, Jane Boleyn, and Lady Jane Grey. All figures of the Tudor period.

   

Off to see the Abbey and Buckingham Palace again tomorrow, and will hopefully venture out to a West End show in the evening.

This morning we had the pleasure to accept an invitation for breakfast at the Australian High Commission here in London. Held in Australia House on Strand. The breakfast was very nice, and was held amongst officials and representatives of the High Commission, providing the opportunity for the F1 in Schools teams to introduce themselves and the competition.

We learnt a cool piece of trivia whilst we were there, the main atrium within Australia House was used as the interior setting for Gringotts Bank in Harry Potter!

The marble floors and chandeliers are original to Australia House

I will endeavour to include some pictures of some of the latest adventures as soon as I can get access to them.

First Post: Concentrate and make it poignant

Howdy all,

A little over a week from now (and I mean like in 7 days and 3 hours time) I will begin probably my biggest adventure to date! It will be the beginning of a trip I have been planning for a least the last 6 months.

Sparked group of students at my brother’s school (my former college and a group which my brother was a member) winning the right to enter an International student engineering competition (F1 in Schools), I will eventually find myself in London in the middle of September.

For more information on the competition, visit F1 in Schools

Prior to this, I will be making my first venture outside of Australia, starting in Japan, moving on to London, Cardiff, Bangor (Wales), back to London, possibly venturing into France and then back home via Tokyo.

I plan to update this blog as I go, primarily as a way for me to document my adventure, but also to give others who are planning to visit the same places I do into the future an idea of what they are like. I will hopefully be able to post images and maybe video of the places I visit!