A TEAM of pupils have raced into the national final of a design competition.

Britannia Red, a team from Robert May’s School, Odiham, designed a speedy race car in the London and South East Regional Final of the F1 in Schools STEM Challenge, winning a place at the National Finals.

The competition challenges students to prepare business plans, design, analyse, make, test and race a scale model Formula 1 race car.

The national finals will see Britannia Red compete with 47 other teams on March 11 and 12 for the F1 in Schools UK Champions title and a place at the World Finals later this year.

The team of six 13 to 15-year-olds, Amelia Dorward, Tilly Wake, Zach Taylor, Abi Bessant, Ted Hodgson and Harriet Ingleton, are keen to be competing again in the challenge.

Team manager Amelia said: “We’re really proud of the team, we’ve done really well so far and put in a lot of hard work.

“We’re looking at the testing of our car, as well as our marketing and sponsorship programme.

“We’re keen to improve and to see all the other teams.

“We’d love to reach the World Finals, but it’s an achievement in itself to reach the National Finals.”

The UK Champions will win tickets to the Formula 1 British Grand Prix, including exclusive paddock access at the event from Formula 1, a Formula 1 team factory tour, two £5,000 scholarships for UCL Mechanical Engineering and, for the winning school, a F1 Branded Race Track and Race Control System with Car Deceleration System worth £5,000 from Denford Ltd.

Founder and chairman, F1 in Schools, Andrew Denford, said: “We’ve had an exceptionally strong series of regional finals with outstanding car designs, innovative ideas and highly professional presentations, so I’m very excited to see how they all perform, and I’m sure they will all have raised their game for the National Finals. Bringing Formula 1 into the classroom with this programme really inspires the students and nurtures a passion for engineering as well as developing the students’ life skills. They all learn so much, without realising it!”