Teams ‘Vanguard Racing’ and ‘Dark Pace’ from Victoria College, and ‘Phoenix Performance’ from Beaulieu Convent School emerged as the overall champions in the Professional, Development and Entry categories at the inaugural ‘F1 in Schools Jersey Finals’, held this week.
The champions fought off fierce competition from a total of 13 teams from Jersey College for Girls, Victoria College, De La Salle College, Beaulieu Convent School and the Air Cadets to win the coveted trophies, after a highly competitive day of racing held in the Great Hall at Highlands College.
As part of their prize, the winners of the Professional and Development classes will now go through to the national UK Finals stage to be held at the MAGNA Science Adventure Centre in Rotherham later this month – and potentially the F1 in Schools World Final later in 2025.
The Finals mark the conclusion of a four-month programme, launched in November last year by Digital Jersey and Skills Jersey. Over that time, around 100 secondary school students have been working in their teams to design, build and ultimately race their very own small-scale F1 car. To support them, teams have been given access to specialist kit, including computer aided design software, and have received regular guidance from the Digital Jersey team.
Over the course of an intense Finals race day, the teams were given an opportunity to put all their hard work to the test, and race their small-scale F1 racing car, powered by a CO2 canister, on a specially constructed track running the entire length of the hall. Teams were also given an opportunity to showcase their design and engineering strategy to judges.
Awards were presented to the overall winners by the visiting team from the F1 in Schools Programme Tom Milner and Aimee Dawson, whilst there were also awards recognising different elements of the design process, including team identity, sponsorship and marketing, research and development and presentation skills.
The F1 in Schools programme is a global initiative that aims to give students an opportunity to develop their teamwork, marketing, project management, and science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) skills within an F1 context.
Commenting on the first ever F1 in Schools Finals in Jersey, Tony Moretta, CEO, Digital Jersey, said: “To see Highlands College transformed into such an impressive race track environment, and to witness first hand the enthusiasm and energy from the students taking part was a real privilege, and brings home just how important STEM learning and digital skills are to the development of our young people. This is a really exciting programme and I’m looking forward to seeing how our first ever Jersey winners now get on in the UK Finals.”
Dave Roworth, Senior Advisor at Skills Jersey, added: “This programme is all about nurturing imagination and creativity in a fun environment – but there was nevertheless a hugely competitive element to the Finals, which was encouraging to see. It was also fantastic to see so many students from right across our secondary schools taking part and getting immersed in this initiative. I’m convinced that their experience can open up further opportunities for them in the future.”
