Andrew Denford and Steve Nevey ready to race

Nevey brings to F1 in Schools a wealth of motor racing experience. A Milton Keynes based F1 professional of 22 years standing, Nevey started his F1 career at Footwork Arrows before moving to Stewart Grand Prix, later to become Jaguar Racing and then Red Bull Racing. With eight years tenure at Red Bull Racing, Nevey enjoyed celebrating two World Championships with the team, in 2010 and 2011.

“I’m very excited by the opportunity to work with Andrew Denford and the F1 in Schools Technology Challenge”, says Nevey. “I met Andrew not long after he had launched F1 in Schools, over 10 years ago, and was impressed with his vision for it. I supported the initiative through my Red Bull Racing role, giving presentations to the students at the UK National Finals each year.  Leaving Red Bull Racing has given me the chance to pursue some of my other interests and to take on this new role with F1 in Schools.

“F1 in Schools is a unique and highly regarded educational initiative which is proving to be an excellent foundation for students looking to enter a career in Formula 1, motorsport or the wider engineering industry.  The need for commercial support is critical to its continued success and the expansion of the initiative and with my background I hope to be able to make a positive contribution to the safeguarding of its future and its growth, both within the UK and across the globe”.

Andrew Denford, Founder and Chairman, F1 in Schools, welcomed Nevey to the F1 in Schools team of personnel, saying, “We’re very pleased that Steve has come on board to lead the commercial aspects of our initiative. We have established F1 in Schools within the education sector and the F1 industry and have been going from strength to strength, expanding into over 40 countries. However, our future growth needs further commercial investment, so Steve will be building relationships with potential stakeholders and sponsors to help us to achieve our long-term goals.”

F1 in Schools™ aims to help change perceptions of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) by creating a fun and exciting learning environment for young people to develop an informed view about careers in engineering, Formula One, Science, marketing and technology.  F1 in Schools™ is supported by Formula One Management, Bernie Ecclestone, The IET and City University, London.

F1 in Schools challenges students to design a model compressed air powered F1 Car of the future using CAD/CAM Engineering techniques. Cars are then manufactured on a CNC machine. Each team of between three and six students brings together their portfolio of work to present to a judging panel with a verbal and written presentation to support their model car, which is raced on a specially designed test track. Using compressed air power, the model car is catapulted along the 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 Finals with a time of 1.020 seconds.