Young Sheffield engineers get revved and ready for national contest

The six Year 10 students from Bradfield School, Kirk Edge Road, are looking forward to taking part in ‘F1 in Schools’ after coming in third in the Yorkshire and Humber regional final.

Having received funding, technical assistance and components from a number of organisations, including UK Steel Enterprise (UKSE), Timkem, WNT and Primetals Technologies, the students, who call themselves team ‘Sheff1 Racing’, designed and manufactured a miniature compressed air powered car to take part in the event.

Team member and GCSE Engineering student, Ben Powell-Wiffen said: “This is our team’s first ever year competing in F1 in Schools and so we’re thrilled to have made it through to the National finals.

“The school was offering the project as an extra-curricular activity and I decided to get involved. It’s been really great fun making and racing the car as well as learning other skills such as finance management and marketing.

“We also had the opportunity to visit local businesses too including Sheffield Hallam University where we visited Dr John Hart at the Centre for Sports Engineering Research to learn more about the aerodynamics of our car, which was really interesting.”

The group is now hoping to continue its successes at the National final,  which is to be held in March, where the vehicle will be analysed, tested and raced.

If successful at this stage of the competition, the team will then go through to the next stage which is the World finals.

Following on from the team’s successes to date, UKSE, a subsidiary of Tata Steel tasked with providing support to communities affected by changes in the steel industry, has awarded £750 as part of its Community Support Scheme with the funding contributing to the creation of a prototype model, components for the car and branding.