Wednesday, May 08, 2013
Abu Dhabi: The F1 in Schools Championship, which kicks off the fever for the Etihad Airways Abu Dhabi Grand Prix every year, will be held at the Yas Marina Circuit on May 12.
Over 200 students from 37 school teams from across the UAE will be competing for the title of UAE Champions 1, with the winner getting the chance to represent the UAE at the F1 in Schools World Finals to be held in Austin, Texas later this year.
“We are really excited about it,” said Sandip Roy, the aerodynamics and design engineer of Team Tachyon, the team which has qualified as champions from Dubai-based British curriculum secondary school Dubai College. The team’s engineering division compromise of Roy, Francois Pieterse (manufacturing engineer) and James Thrower (race engineer).
Under the competition rules, the cars race along a 20m rack in speeds of under a second (roughly those of real F1 cars) and with strict regulations dictating the properties of the cars.
Like real Formula 1, the schools event is not only a technical competition involving calculations and measurements but teams also have to focus on their marketing and management divisions. In Tachyon, this department is made up of Ryan Evans (team manager), Jonathan Lahdo (marketing manager) and Euan MacKinnon (graphic designer) who are responsible for creating an eye-catching team aesthetic and identity, manage the team’s finances and co-ordinate the team’s efforts as a whole.
The F1 in Schools programme, which aims to introduce engineering into the classroom through the excitement of F1 racing, has seen widespread success in the UAE since it began locally in 2010.
Staff Report
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