England Wins F1 in Schools Final

F1 in Schools has a new champion, and they hail all the way from Devonport High School for Boys in Plymouth, UK. Team Pulse made up of four boys, John Ware (16) Samuel Wood (15) Andrew Lees (16) and Thomas Simpson (17) lifted the prestigious Bernie Ecclestone world championship trophy in Malaysia. With that mighty lift they earned themselves places at the City University in London to study motor sport engineering.

“We are still in shock,” said graphic designer Simpson. “It took two years to develop the car so I’m really pleased that all those hours of work paid off.”

The international competition involves schools from all over the planet, aiming to encourage engineering as a career. It’s open to school children aged between 11 and 18. The kids use sophisticated CAD/CAM computers to design, build, analyse, test and race 20 scale model F1 cars. The cars are pretty much based on F1 realities, with the small exception that they are powered by CO2 cylinders and are made of balsa wood. Small difference really.

Team Pulse also took the Fastest Car award when their racer did a 1.064 second time, which was agonizingly close to the Northern Ireland time set last year at 1.020 down the 20 metre track.