Kingswood triumphs at Lenovo F1 National Competition

Having won the regional finals, on Friday, team Impetus set off for the national finals in Leeds. With over 28,000 schools taking part worldwide and 1,200 in the UK, it already proved an achievement for Kingswood to be one amongst the 50 places available at the national finals.

First came the verbal presentations. The team had spent a lot of time perfecting this to ensure they delivered a slick and well-oiled account of their journey. The Design and Engineering interview was next in which the judges said they performed admirably and were extremely professional.

The afternoon was dominated by racing and team member Rufus did not disappoint. His lightening reactions proved to be the best of the whole competition. The car went through scrutiny with minimal defects and points deducted.

The judges and other members of staff were all hugely impressed. Impetus won ‘Best Pit Display in the UK’, the ‘Lightening Reaction Award’ and were nominated for the ‘R&D award’!

The amount of time and dedication the team have put towards this competition is admirable and demonstrated Kingswood is producing some fantastic future engineers. Well done to Stan, Marco, Ben, Jack and Rufus. Collecting a quarter of the trophies available was a monumental achievement for a first attempt.

Mr East, Design and Technology teacher at Kingswood, spoke of their achievements: "What the boys produced was nothing short of outstanding. The hard work they have put into this was shown and recognised by the awards they were nominated for and won. I know they are already planning their comeback for next year and are determined to win. Competitions like this show how driven some of our students are. Watch this space, team ‘Impetus’ will be in the world finals next year!"

Unfortunately, the car was not quite as fast as they wanted it to be this year, which meant the world finals were just out of reach for them. With the help of a newly-purchased racetrack to test the cars, we look forward to seeing what they, and others, can achieve next year.

“The team have been exceptionally driven to succeed with ‘F1 in Schools’" Said Mr Castrique, Interim Head of Design and Technology. "Whether organising business meetings with partners from industry, learning about aerodynamic design or developing software flow simulation techniques. The real reward of getting to the finals, aside from the trophies, was spending half an hour discussing their designs with the Jordan F1 car designer Gary Anderson. His input was invaluable in developing their knowledge which has fuelled their desire to come back even stronger next year.”

A huge thank you to everyone who helped to make this happen - and well done to team Impetus!