‘Dynamic’, the team of 15-year olds from Chelmsford, Essex, were delighted with their winning performance. Emily Latham, Edward Talboys, Michael Smith, Anna MacBride and Timothy Tillett have worked tirelessly over the last six months to achieve their success and book themselves a place at the World Championships. This prestigious event will be held later this year at an international F1 Grand Prix with the team now preparing for the prospect of racing for the prestigious Bernie Ecclestone trophy and coveted scholarships to City University, London. The team’s prize for winning the National Finals includes a trip to the 2010 British Grand Prix at Silverstone in July this year, courtesy of Silverstone Circuit.

Emily Latham, Team Manager, Team Dynamic, said of winning, “I think it’s our strong teamwork that gave us the edge over other teams, as well as our innovative race car design. We’ve put a lot of hours in to this competition, but it has all been worthwhile. Some of us had to miss a GCSE mock exam to compete in the regional finals and we went into school when it was snowing so that we would be ready for the Final, but this is a fantastic reward and we’re really looking forward to representing England at the World Championship. In the meantime we need to turn our focus on to our GCSE exams!”

Chairman and Founder of F1 in Schools, Andrew Denford said of this year’s National Finals, “Each time we hold the UK Finals the judges are blown away by the standard of the entrants, particularly the engineering expertise which we are seeing, some of which is exceeding GCSE level. The bar is being raised each year too, with teams introducing new innovations, top quality presentations and portfolios, and producing very close racing.

“’Dynamic’ are very worthy champions showing great ingenuity and professionalism. They have now matched the achievement of last year’s team from the school, Velocity, who won the UK Final last year and went on to the World Championships. They did well there, but didn’t take the title, so I’m sure Dynamic will be looking to go one better later this year.”

F1 in Schools aims to help change perceptions of engineering, science and technology by creating a fun and exciting learning environment for young people to develop an informed view about careers in Mathematics, Engineering, Science and Technology. Students are given a brief to design a model compressed powered F1 Car of the future using a CAD (Computer Aided Design) packagee.  Once the cars are designed, they are transferred into CNC (Computer Numerical Control) language using a <place w:st="on">CAM</place> (Computer Aided Manufacture) package. Cars are then manufactured on a CNC machine.

The cars race on a 20 metre track, covering the distance in just over one second, a speed barrier which is yet to be broken by any student team since it was set by Team FUGA from Northern Ireland at the 2007 World Championships.

The challenge encourages students to use IT to learn about physics, aerodynamics, design, manufacture, branding, graphics, sponsorship, marketing, leadership/teamwork, media skills and financial strategy, and apply these in practical, competitive and exciting ways.

RESULTS 2009/10 UK NATIONAL FINAL

UK National Champions 2009/10
Dynamic – St. John Payne Catholic Comprehensive School, Chelmsford, Essex

Winners 14-19 Age Group, F1 Class:

1. Dynamic – St. John Payne Catholic Comprehensive School, Chelmsford, Essex
2. Mach 1 – Lutterworth College, Lutterworth, Leicestershire
3. Synergy – Richard Rose Central Academy, Carlisle, Cumbria

Winners 11-14 Age Group, Bloodhound SSC Class :

1. Flare – St.Dunstan’s Community School, Glastonbury, Somerset
2. Speeding Snails - Wilmington Grammar School, Dartford, Kent
3. Bloodhounds - Castleford High School, Leeds 

Winners, Rookies sponsored by Corus:

1. Bloodhounds - Castleford High School, Leeds
2. Scintilla - Ribblesdale Technology College, Clitheroe
3. Blink and You'll Miss Us - Harris Academy, Dundee

Best Engineered Car:
Mach 1 – Lutterworth College, Lutterworth, Leicestershire

Fastest F1 Car Class:
Incendia - Robert May's School, Odiham, Hampshire (1.113 seconds)

Fastest Bloodhound SSC Car Class:
Speeding Snails - Wilmington Grammar School, Dartford, Kent (0.620 seconds)

Best Team Sponsorship & Marketing Award:
Fflam - Ysgol Botwnnog, Pwlhelli, Gwynedd, South Wales

Innovative Thinking Award:
Scintilla - Ribblesdale Technology College, Clitheroe