AFTER six months of designing and developing their own racing cars, six schools from the North East of England have won the right to represent the region at the UK finals of F1 in Schools.
150 children from 29 school teams across North East England took part in the event at Nissan’s Sunderland Plant, which uses the excitement of Formula One to inspire children to follow careers in STEM subjects (science, technology, engineering and mathematics).
Although the cars accelerate to over 45mph in less than a second, the competition isn’t just about speed. Teams of up to six pupils from each school were judged not only on who had the fastest car but also on their engineering prowess, branding and a team presentation to decide the six regional winners who will compete at the UK finals in Birmingham in March.
The winning teams included Emmanuel College in Gateshead; Royal Grammar School, Discovery and St Cuthbert’s School in Newcastle and Norman Street Primary school in Carlisle who will compete for a place in the world final held at the Singapore Grand Prix later this year.
This year, under the umbrella of the Nissan Skills Foundation, the carmaker has created a hi-tech workshop with a 20m test track at the company’s Global Training Centre that is available to all schools taking part.
Adrian Smart, HR Director at Nissan Sunderland Plant, said: “It’s fantastic to see the effort and expertise that these schools have been putting into their projects since the test track opened. The investment by the Nissan Skills Foundation means every school who wants to take part has access to state of the art equipment, so our local schools have every opportunity to reach their potential in this competition.
“Our support for F1 in Schools is a great example of how we can inspire children to get engaged in STEM subjects and go on to become the next generation of engineers.”
NAC Group, based in Sunderland, work alongside Nissan to deliver the F1 in Schools programme in the North East, providing workshop equipment to support regional teams including 3-D printers and laser cutters.
Paul Robson, managing director at NAC Group said: “We hope through NAC group’s investment in F1 in Schools, we will see a North East school go on to achieve great success in the national and international finals of the competition.
