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Formula One has set the hearts and minds of Bahrain's youngsters racing in more ways than one.
A group of 32 senior school students, aged 12 to 18, of St Christopher's School have signed up as seven different teams to compete for this year's 'Formula One in Schools Technology Challenge'.
The event is being held in the kingdom for the first time on June 21 at the senior school sports hall in Isa Town.
The winning team will be travelling to London later this year to represent the home of motorsport in the Middle East in the world championships and face around 30 national teams from around the globe.
Formula One in Schools Technology Challenge is a multi-disciplinary challenge where students in teams have had to research, design and manufacture a racing car out of a block of balsam wood with 220mm x 65mm x 50mm dimensions.
The entire project spans around a whole school year with students meeting over two afternoons every week to complete the project.
They also have to present themselves as a racing team complete with a group identity, logo and sponsorship and give a presentation on developing the car and working as a team.
The students have been given minimal directions by their head of design and technology, Simon Jones, who has been guiding the students on using the software and in the manufacturing process that uses a CNC Router to build the prototype of a racing car.
Mr Jones said that the competition has attracted both genders in fair numbers and is trying to promote the idea that engineering is for everybody. He said: "It's not just about the car coming first. It's a lot about what goes on behind the scenes. It is also testing the students' designing skills and team work. We want to replicate as much as possible the real Formula One experience, which is very much about teamwork.
"There will be an award for the best team. It is basically how they have worked during the year; how well they present themselves with the team kit and identity, design their car and folder, and give a five-minute presentation that tells the judges how well they worked together as a group and supported each other in that process.
"There will then be a smaller prize for the best engineered car, which will basically be how fast it went and how well they have shown the design process and used the manufacturing equipment. And there will be a final prize for the best presentation."
The competition will take place over a day on a special track that is 25 metres long and will be followed by team presentations.
The cars will be set off by a firing mechanism and will be automatically timed at the gate. One race will test the car out and see how fast it can cover the required distance while a second race will check reaction time with the start buttons.
The students have had to research about designing cars and finer aspects such as developing an aerodynamic shape that can speed up a car. They have to also delegate specific responsibilities within the team that could optimise their talents and skills.
Members of Team Venom, for example, have managed to get sponsorship of caps and T-shirts from the Royal Golf Club, are GCSE students who have combined their skills of working in resistant materials and graphics.
Scott Wilkinson, 15, said: "We did a lot of research into aerodynamics and things like that. It requires a lot of precision, accuracy and hand work as every mini second counts. The process for the idea of designing took over a month.
"On the manufacturing side a lot of care is taken to position the wheel and axle as the last thing you want is to get one wheel higher than the other. It also takes a lot of time to sand it to perfection and at the same time if we sand it too much it can get brittle.
"Each of us has different backgrounds and we are taking care of different parts of the projects. We chose green as our colour as it is the generalised colour of venom and chose venom because it is dangerous."
Jean-Clive, 18, is the graphic engineer of Team Epic that has six Year 12 members. Speaking of his role, he said: "I had to ensure that the car is representing the team well. I designed the colour scheme of the car, all the aesthetics, stickers, team specific cards and team T-shirt.
"We called our team Epic because this is something big and huge. It is a good opportunity for people who intend to get into the field of engineering.
"Participating in this competition itself raises your profile and if we win it would be great. If we don't, we will grab the experience we gained this year and use it to our advantage next year.
"We can also, of course, lend our experience as best as we can. In future, if our school is going to compete with other schools we definitely want St Chris to be on the top. There will be no disappointments!"
The winning team has been offered sponsorship by Gulf Air to travel to London for the world championships. If the members win the world championships they will receive sponsorship to an engineering course. The school is now looking for additional support from the community towards the costs of the registration fee and four nights stay in London.
For further information about the project log on to www.f1inschools.ae
