Australian youth emerge ferrari world F1 champs 

(MENAFN - Khaleej Times) Abu Dhabi cheered the future of the Formula One motorsport as winners of the F1 in Schools World Finals were announced at Ferrari World, Abu Dhabi.

In a gruelling three-day competition which began last Monday, the 33 teams comprising three to six members from 22 countries, were put to test in engineering, design and marketing, and racing their F1 car prototypes before a panel of experts.

And the victory went to the six-strong team, Cold Fusion, from Australia who will be bringing home the Bernie Ecclestone F1 in Schools World Championship trophy. All members of the winning team also received a four-year university scholarship from the City University London. In addition, the jubilant team bagged the Knock Out Racing Award for the fastest car, with their 1.045 seconds.

"It's amazing to think that all our hard work has paid off. To sum it up, it's incredible," said Jane Burton, Cold Fusion's team manager.

It was the first time the team had come to an international competition, and had no expectations, she said. "There's so much that can go wrong (but) we came here with the best work we can do," said Spencer Olds, design engineer of the team.

One of the things that did go wrong was the team's booth, which turned out to be much bigger than the space allocated them at the Ferrari World, meaning they had to sacrifice certain elements of their planned display. But it did not prove to be enough of an obstacle to compromise their overall performance. Team Ignite and Rush, both from the UK, took out the second and third places, respectively.

Andrew Denford, founder and Chairman of F1 in Schools commended the entrants. "It has been (the most) amazing four days. The standard of work is more than I could imagine," he said during the awards ceremony.

The five-member team, Safire Racing, from the German International School in Dubai held up the banner for the UAE, crowned winners of the Verbal Presentation section, while Blackbird X from The Indian High School in Dubai came close to taking out the Innovative Thinking Award, which eventually went to the Motion Racing team from Wales.

"We're proud of ourselves," said Christopher Land, IT and Communication head for Safire Racing. Despite being a newcomer, the team won the F1 in Schools National Championship in May, over 34 experienced competitors.

For the six-member team of Blackbird X, their sadness was not because of missing out on the awards, but that this year's competition marked the end of their F1 experience. All of the team members will be graduating this year, five of whom have been competing for the past five years, and now have to pass on the torch to their juniors. "This is our last year. We're upset because we can't do this again. Our five years has now come to an end," expressed Ashik Shajahan, Blackbird X team manager.

Next on the team's agenda is training the 300 members of their F1 in Schools club to follow in their footsteps.

The awards ceremony was attended by Shaikh Nahyan bin Mubarak Al Nahyan, Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research, and other big names in Formula One including Sahara Force India driver Nico Hulkenberg.