Before your championship-winning F1 driver made it to the podium to spray a bottle of bubbly stuff around, he had to start somewhere. And ditto for those guys who have to change the car’s tyres when it pulls in for a pit stop, and the headset-wearing chaps who hang around the pit lane analysing data on clipboards.
The UAE is keen to encourage its youth to start on the path towards motorsport greatness. But while the search for the next Michael Schumacher is the job of the Yas Marina Racing School, the nurturing of the next generation of the pit lane and financial staff is tasked to the F1 in Schools programme.
This is a worldwide scheme in which teams of three to six school pupils, aged nine-19, have to design the cars on Computer Aided Design (CAD) systems to be as aerodynamic as possible, and then craft them out of balsa wood. The youngsters also have to approach businesses to get sponsorship for their team and use the money to buy team kits and create a brand identity.
And finally, all their hard work comes to fruition on race day when they have to actually race their cars along a straight, 25m track, using air-propulsion to push the car at speeds of up to 70kph. The teams are awarded points for the speed of their car, their brand identity and their business model, with the winner going on to the world F1 in Schools finals in Malaysia in the summer.
Don Sankey is the manager of F1 in Schools in Abu Dhabi and acted as compere on the day of the races last week. He says: ‘Motorsports is so much more than just racing a fast car. What this project does is promote all the associated careers with motorsports. No driver can race a car if they haven’t got science, financial or design experts behind them.
‘There was a time three years ago, when we first went to the world finals in Malaysia, that we were out of our depths, but now we can go to Malaysia brimming with confidence. We’re a force to be reckoned with.’
And does he see some of the youngsters here going on to become pit lane bosses, race engineers or maybe even replacing F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone? ‘I hope so,’ says Don. ‘We haven’t had anyone from Abu Dhabi yet, because we’re only three years old, but from F1 in Schools across the world, many of our students have graduated and now work for F1 teams. We have a good number of Emirati drivers coming through the driving academy and making their mark on the world, but we’d hope that soon some of the schoolchildren here could be making a living in F1.’
Among the competitors on the day was Prince Rex, 14, who was the design engineer for Our Own English High School in Al Ain. Although his team didn’t win, he still felt it was a worthy project to have been involved in.‘Winning or losing, we don’t really mind. We just came along for the enjoyment of it – plus we get a day off school! But we’ve all learnt so much about what it takes to race a car; it’s been a lot of fun. Maybe I’d like to be a racing engineer when I’m older, but I’m still a bit too young to make up my mind.’
For more information about the F1 in Schools programme, visit www.yasmarinacircuit.ae
Results of F1 in Schools 2011
• First Place: Team Red Shift (Dubai College, Dubai)
• Second Place: Revolution Racing (Dubai College, Dubai)
• Best Verbal Presentation: Team Red Shift (Dubai College, Dubai)
• Best Team Identity: Team Blackbird 1.0 (The Indian High School, Dubai)
• Best Team Display: Team Blackbird 1.0 (The Indian High School, Dubai)
• Best Reaction Time: Team Ex Machina (Greenwood International School, Dubai)
• Fastest Car: Revolution Racing (Dubai College, Dubai)
