Three Mount View High School students have been soaking up the atmosphere in the lead-up to the Malaysian Grand Prix while taking part in their own high-adrenaline challenge this week.
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Liam Whiteley, Daniel Lambkin and Connor Minchinton are part of the Australian team Envisity that competed at the F1 in Schools world finals in Kuala Lumpur.
The Mount View boys teamed up with Duncan Hill, Dylan Cai, Steven Cabalzar, and Matthew Fleming from Launceston College to form Envisity.
The boys collaborated after their teams finished third and fourth respectively at the F1 in Schools national championships in Adelaide in March, and received a wild card to the world finals.
F1 in Schools is the world's largest secondary school science, technology, education and maths (STEM) program.
More than nine million students take part each year, with competitions held at regional, state and national level – but only the top 350 make it to the world finals.
The students spent thousands of hours designing a miniature Formula One car, using state-of-the-art technology.
Teams are judged by professional engineers in criteria including car design, speed, innovation, collaboration with industry, project management, technical portfolio, verbal presentation and marketing.
Envisity placed 14th overall (out of 51 teams) and received the team sponsorship and marketing award.
Liam, who took on the role of team manager, said attending the world finals has been a spectacular experience.
“My expectations of a world final were nothing like what we have experienced over the last week,” he said.
“The atmosphere is like nothing else.
“The people we have met and the ideas they have had never cease to amaze.”
Liam said the team was “blown away” to win the team sponsorship and marketing award, and that it was a credit to the support they have received from the Hunter and Launceston communities.
“Special thanks to our sponsors and both Mount View High School and Launceston College,” he said.
Liam said placing 14th in the world is far beyond what he and his teammates could ever have imagined.
“The hard work has paid off,” he said.
Australian team Hyperdrive (from Trinity Grammar School in Victoria) was crowned overall champion.
After three days of intense competition, the students had the opportunity to walk the pit lane at Sepang International Circuit on Thursday, and will also have the chance to attend the Formula One Petronas Malaysia Grand Prix from Friday to Sunday.
Mount View High student Daniel Lambkin is interviewed in the post below.
Check out the full awards celebration in the video below.
