27 April 2011
Von: The Gulf Today, Abu Dhabi
ABU DHABI: Red Shift Team won the 2011 UAE national championship in the F1 in Schools competition held at the Yas Marina Circuit on Tuesday.
Team Red Shift Team also won the Best Verbal Presentation. The winning team was made up of Shounak Das, Louisa Henson, Gina Steel, Dom Palubiski, Rahul Dungarwal and Mustapha Shaikh.
Revolution Racing, who won the Fastest Car award, consisted of Vansh Dassani, Kashyap Sajnani and Saniya Mediratta, secured second place.
The winners Red Shift Team will represent UAE in the World Championships to be held in Malaysia in September whereas the runners-up getting an opportunity to form a special combined team with a school from Malaysia for the world event.
Team Black Bird from the Indian School won the Best Team Identity and Best Team Display Awards. Ashik Shajahan, Aashish Salian, Sreekanth Mohankumar, Akshay Giridharan and Ahmad Yousuf were the members of the Indian school team. The Best Reaction Time award went to Team Machina. The one-day event drew 66 students from seven schools that have much effort in preparing for the championship.
“The quality of this year’s entries is a testimony to the talent and ingenuity of young people in the UAE,” said Richard Cregan, Chief Executive Officer of Yas Marina Circuit.
“Our inaugural national final last year produced winners that went on to achieve great things in the World Championship, and we have all been impressed by the high standard of the entries this year.”
“Our thanks go to our partner, Mubadala, for supporting the F1 in Schools programme.
“This has helped us build F1 in Schools in the UAE to the point where it has a great future in the development of our primary and secondary students.”
Homaid Al Shemmari, Executive Director of the Mubadala Aerospace and Patron of UAE Formula One in Schools, said: “Mubadala is at the heart of Abu Dhabi’s and the UAE’s economic diversification.
“I’m so pleased to see the achievements of the students that have taken part in the F1 in Schools competition,” he added.
