Exeter School team accelerate into National Final of F1 in Schools Competition

Exeter School's F1 in Schools team, Burning Rubber, has won a place in the National Final of the STEM competition which takes place on Wednesday 20 April.

The team of six Year 10 pupils took four prizes at the F1 in Schools South West Regional Final held at Exeter University on Tuesday 1 March.

Burning Rubber began preparing for the F1 in Schools competition back in July and eight months later the team, accompanied by Dr Rowland and Miss Offord, have made it into the Final.

The competition was an all-day event, held in the Great Hall at the Streatham campus of the University of Exeter.

In the morning, the pupils gave a presentation on their work to a pair of judges, and discussed their project, ideas and pit display with another pair of judges. In the afternoon, they were grilled by professional engineers from Rolls Royce on the design of their car and its conformance to strict technical regulations.

Finally, the highlight of the day: racing their car along the 20 m drag-racing track, covering the distance in not much more than 1.5 seconds. 

Dr Rowland, who has been supervising the team, said that Peter Quine's sharp reflexes on the launch trigger led to very fast starts, and the quickest time in the Rookie class.

"Throughout the day, the pupils performed superbly, engaging with the judges in a notably composed, articulate, and friendly fashion, and they came away with three awards in the Rookie category: fastest Rookie car, best engineered Rookie car, and best Rookie team," he said. 

"They also beat the more experienced teams in the main F1 category to win the Innovative Thinking prize, having impressed the judges with their research into previous winning car designs. 

"Burning Rubber also struck a blow for women in engineering, with Emily Judd being the only female principal of any team."

Emily said she was really ecstatic that they won and have gone through to the National Final.

"Our team has worked incredibly hard and I am so proud of them," she said.

"I couldn't have asked for a better team. I really wanted to get involved with F1 because I love managing people and thought it would be really good experience and it was!

"We started by designing a rough identity and thinking about good car ideas. We carried on thinking about ideas and started making them happen. Cosmo (our team resource man) bought in so much money from our lovely sponsorships. We wouldn't have got anywhere without Cosmo or our sponsors.

"This has really opened up my mind to engineering and I am definitely thinking about a job career in this area of work. I am so happy for the team and can't wait to compete again in the Final."

As best Rookie team, the pupils have won a place to the National Final, which is to be held at Silverstone Circuit on 20 April.

Burning Rubber would once again like to thank their sponsors (T-Sport Formula 3 Racing Team, The London Fan Company, Supacat, Exeter Audi, The Gro Company, WiFi Spark, Recoco Property Search Agents and Meridian Sea Limited) and the Fab Lab at Exeter City Library, upon whose support this venture depends.