The Vision
F1 in Schools Ltd is a not-for-profit company established with committed partners to provide an exciting yet challenging educational experience through the magnetic appeal of Formula One™.
F1 in Schools is rapidly realising its potential by becoming a truly global educational programme that raises awareness of Formula One™ amoung students and school children in every region, in every country, on every continent.
Spanning age ranges of 9 to 19 its main objective is to help change perceptions of engineering, science and technology 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.
- Business Plan
- Design
- Analyse
- Build
- Test
- Race
Working in teams of between 3 and 6 members, each student is assigned roles. The team prepares a business plans, develops a budget and raises sponsorship.
Teams are encouraged to collaborate with Industry and forge business links.
Teams use CAD (Computer Aided Design) software to develop their ideas and model them in 3D. Copies of CAD software, along with tutorials and design templates, are provided free to competing teams.
After you have designed your car, you will need to Analyse it for two main aerodynamic factors:
- Drag: Your car will move faster if its shape minimises the resistance of the air to its forward movement.
- Lift: Things that move quickly tend to 'take off'. You're not building an airplane, so you'll want your car's shape to minimise this natural effect.
F1 in Schools™ teams are provided with the Virtual Wind Tunnel software program that predicts the effects of drag and lift. After testing for aerodynamic efficiency, teams can refine their car designs.
Now that you've aerodynamically analysed your car's design, it's time to transform it into a physical car. This is a two-step process:
- CAD to CAM: You convert your CAD file into a Computer-Aided Manufacturing (CAM) file that can be read by a Computer Numerical Control (CNC) system.
- CAM to CNC: The CNC system shapes the balsa wood block into a physical car based on the design specifications in the supplied CAM file.
Now that you have made your F1 car, wind and/or smoke tunnels can help you enhance your car's performance to find those extra thousandths of a second for race day.
Now you and your team members can add those final touches, such as painting the car with a high quality paint in your team's colour scheme and decorating it with any sponsorship stickers or advertising.
Your team needs to produce a portfolio of supporting evidence for your work. This includes your initial ideas, the design development process, a specification sheet, a 3rd angle orthographic projection and a graphic rendering of your final design. Your team will also need to prepare a verbal presentation on your work.
Race day has arrived, but the F1 in Schools™ championship is about more than head-to-head racing. Teams are evaluated using multiple criteria, you will be expected to perform several activities including displays of portfolios and verbal presentations.
