Most of us will never drive a Formula One car, so how about attempting to design one?
That's exactly what five young students of Dubai College put their minds to in creating the ideal scale Formula One car – from just a block of balsa wood and a compressed gas canister!
Anant Mohan, Mike Geeson, Kaitlin Jones, Andy Helsby and Chengaiz Khan, together known as Team Veludicrous proved they were every bit as innovative as the intriguing name suggested to them by a fellow school mate.
The five-member team produced a superb all-round package to win the recent Formula One in Schools Challenge at Dubai Autodrome. The competition which involved 10 teams (three from Oman), challenged students to design, construct and race a model Formula One car. Speed certainly was not the only quality that mattered.
Points were also allocated for team marketing, team identity as well as verbal presentations.
Though Team Veludicrous did not win any of the four individual categories, they were handsomely rewarded for their overall consistency and have now earned the right to represent the UAE as National champions at September's World Championship in London.
But before they can start preparing towards that goal, they are also in a race against time to find sponsors.
“We don't have the quickest car at the moment,'' says 17-year-old Geeson, the team's manufacturing engineer, adding: “A lot more research is needed to get to the level [of competing in the World Championship]. But we can't do much without money.''
Jones candidly admits the physics side of things don't interest her, but her role as the team's identity and resource manager was crucial to their success.
She says: “Because it will be the first time a team will be flying the UAE flag at this event, just having the support of UAEbased companies would be great,let alone the money we need for all our travel and accommodation
expenditure.''
Al Arabi Travel Agency, Print Central and Euphoria Films who sponsored the team for the National competition have pledged to continue their support.
Aside from the prestigious Bernie Ecclestone trophy, there is in fact a lot more at stake for the five young students as fouryear Bachelor of Automotive and Motor Sport Engineering scholarships at the City University
London await the winners of the World Championship.
Race mechanics
The cars are powered with a CO2 canister and fired down a 25 metre track where teams aim to achieve a time of less than a second.
As in a real Formula One race, there are five red lights in a row on the starting grid. Once all five have gone out, the triggers to launch can be
pressed.
F1 in Schools
F1 in Schools is a multi-disciplinary challenge in which teams of students aged nine to 19 deploy CAD/CAM software to collaborate, design, analyse, manufacture, test,and then race miniature gaspowered balsa wood F1 cars.
