A team of six 17-year-old students from Australia lifted the F1 in Schools World Champions trophy at Silverstone this week.
‘Hydron’ with team members Will Johnson, Benjamin Noonan, Alexander Liu, Andrew Yeang, Timothy Crichton and Alastair Murph from Trinity Grammar School in Melbourne bested entries from 25 countries, to win coveted university scholarships to study at UCL Engineering in London.
Hydron also won the Fastest Car Award supported by Mercedes AMG F1 Team and Best Engineered Car Award, supported by Williams.
The team were nominated for three other awards: Scrutineering Award, Best Pit Display, and Best Application of Project Management.
The Australian team were the second in recent years to claim the title, with Horizon, a team of students from Brighton Secondary School, Adelaide, earning the F1 in Schools World Championship in 2018.
Hydron team principal Johnson said taking the World Champions title was a proud moment for the team.
“When we set out it was our dream to come to the World Finals and here we are now, it’s crazy to think how far we’ve come,” Johnson said.
“We can’t believe we’ve done it, it’s not one person, it’s a real team effort.
“It’s the teamwork, the relationship between us and our shared ambitions, all going for one thing that makes it so special.
“Our engineers did a fantastic job of designing our cars, hours and hours of work, thousands, doing the CAD modelling, but it’s the gelling of the team and working together that made our car the best too.
“Some of us are keen to look at the opportunity of the scholarship which is great too.
“We’ve put in so much work, late nights, staying back at school, getting through to the end was a big challenge, but it’s paid off for us.
“We’re just over the moon.”
The F1 in Schools competition provides an opportunity for teams of students to research, design, test, manufacture and race a miniature Formula 1 car, using some of the advanced technology applied within real F1 teams.
The 2022 F1 in Schools World Finals 2022 featured 21 awards, with presenters from award supporter companies and F1 personalities.
Blackout from Wales took the runners up spot in the competition, with SBA Avidity from the UK completing the podium and winning Best Application of Project Management Award.