Young Students Gear Up for International “F1 in Schools” STEM Competition

Four young students from St. Muredach’s College, Ballina, County Mayo, known as Team AIB Racing, have been named as one of Ireland’s representatives at this year’s F1 in Schools World Finals.

The finals, to be held in Singapore, will see the world’s brightest and best young engineers, innovators and executives gather to see who will be crowned World Champions.

F1 in Schools is a competition which challenges students to design, make and race their own miniature Formula One car. Teams must then form a team structure, brand and marketing plan and attract a host of sponsors to allow them to achieve their potential.

Team AIB Racing will travel to Singapore this September, where they will be judged on the performance of their car, marketing, engineering, social media and more.

The team are currently in the middle of their nationwide promotional campaign, and are urging people to get behind them in their drive to become World Champions.

Robert Grimes, the team’s Sponsorship and PR man, explained “The team is extremely excited and proud to be representing Ireland. However, without the support of the Irish people, the hard work, time and resources spent won’t be as valuable.”

Designed to encourage students towards careers in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths), the competition saw over 20 million second level students from over 40 different countries compete this year.

Team Manager at Team AIB Racing, Aaron Hannon, said that “The F1 in Schools challenge has given me such an incredible, in depth experience of physics, engineering and dealing with real businesses and real people. I would encourage any second level student to give the competition a try!”

At the moment, the team are participating in numerous promotional activities and fundraisers, while also working on their car design and manufacturing methods. Enda Flanagan, who takes on the role of Manufacturing and Resources, pointed out that “As a team, we will have to raise about €30,000 in sponsorship to participate at the World Finals. However it’s important to ensure we maintain a focus on our car design, manufacturing and presentation content.”

Paul Flynn, in charge of Graphic Design for the team, added “There’s always more work to be done. We would encourage anyone who possibly can to come on board and help in any way they can.”

So far this year, Team AIB Racing have broken the Irish record for fastest car time in the competition to date, and posted a faster time than the 2015 UK, German, US and Canadian champions, all in their school’s first year entering the competition.

You can follow the team’s journey through their social media pages on Facebook (Team AIB Racing), Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn and Snapchat (all found under teamaibracing) and visit http://teamaibracing.com/ for further information.