Close times in the first day of racing at the F1 in Schools World Finals

The ninth F1 in Schools™ World Finals kicked off in style today with a 40-strong traditional American Marching Band greeting over 200 students from around the world as they gathered for the opening ceremony of this global, life changing, educational initiative.

Waving the green flag for a week of Formula One™ in Austin, the F1 in Schools World Finals 2013 will see one of the 38 teams competing crowned World Champions. With three days of intense competition, the rivalry will be fierce and the pressure will be on in the race to the chequered flag for the Bernie Ecclestone World Champions trophy.  

The opening ceremony featured the beat of the drums of the Bowie School Marching Band to welcome the students and the on track action began with the first race of the competition, a time trial race for Allegiance Racing from Southeast High School, Bradenton, Florida and FyreFliers from Singapore, with the first spoils going to the American team.

Their miniature F1 in Schools car raced down the 20 metre F1 in schools track in a time of 1.090 seconds, but after all the teams had taken their turn on the grid the host nation had been beaten to the provisional top spot on the leaderboard, with Red Set Racing from Sprowston Community High School, Norwich representing the UK claiming the fastest time of the day, 1.087 seconds.

Red Set Racing team manager, Ryan Clabon, said of ending the day in pole position, “It feels great to finish in the lead, out of this world, never expected it, not in a million years! We hoped to be around the 1.1 seconds. We knew our car was quick from testing, but not that quick.”

The UK team may have set the pace on the track, but the judging includes many other elements. The F1 in Schools programme challenges students to create their own Formula One™ team which is commissioned to design, construct and race the fastest miniature Formula One Car of the Future,  a 21cm long scale model built from a block of balsa wood and powered by a compressed air cylinder.

Each team of between three and six students creates a ‘pit’ display and showcases their work in developing their race car, its engineering design, as well as the research and development programme. With two further days of judging ahead, all the teams will be hard at work in their efforts to clinch the F1 in Schools World Champions title.

The F1 in Schools World Finals take place with the assistance of a host of sponsors and supporters including Circuit of The Americas, The Institution of Engineering and Technology, City University London, Autodesk and Austin Independent Schools District.