This team, composed of five IB students from the British International School of Jeddah (BISJ) — Haseena Mangera (17), Amirul Ariffin (17), Mustafa Naveed (17), Aboudeh Sweidan (18) Nadeem Bilani (17) — has made Saudi Arabia proud for being the first team to take part in the F1 in Schools competition. Not only that, they made it all the way to Singapore for the World Finals in September to compete against 25 teams from 18 countries.
The aim was to research, design, test, build and race a miniature F1 car made from balsa wood that would be powered by a CO2 cartridge and travel along a 20-meter straight track in just one second. The car also had to adhere to very specific measurements, be designed using a 3-D CAD (Computer-Aided Design) software and manufactured using a CAM (Computer-Aided Manufacturing) software.
Furthermore, teams were required to present a portfolio, verbal presentation, pit displays, as well as get sponsorship. The team with the best portfolio gets chosen to represent the school in the initial stage before making the car, and then teams compete at national and regional levels before heading to the international stage.
Working in teams between three and six members, along with a supervisor, each student was assigned a role. Under supervision of Nabiha Khan, upper school Computer Science teacher at BISJ, the team members of Impact took the following positions: Mangera was team manager and resources management, Ariffin was design engineer and resources management, Naveed was manufacturing engineer, Sweidan was manufacturing engineer and Bilani was creative consultant and resources management.
“The F1 in Schools competition is not only about the car design, but instead gives a more holistic and realistic experience of Formula One. This is because, much like an actual F1 team, teams also have to approach and develop working relationships with local businesses to acquire sponsorships as a method of funding the project. This means developing a brand identity and applying marketing techniques,” said Khan who was also the In-Country Coordinator (ICC) for KSA.
Team Impact took part in this competition as a CAS project for their IB diploma program. “We put in many weekends and nights and had to coordinate and collaborate as a team constantly. It was hardest during the summer as every team member was in a different country, but we managed to stay in touch via Msn, Skype, e-mail and our website (www.teamimpact-ksa.com), which we built to keep everyone updated on our progress,” said Mangera.
Due to a lack of teams in Saudi Arabia, team Impact couldn’t compete at the national and regional levels. Nonetheless, they were invited by the F1 in Schools organization to participate in the World Finals in Singapore where three types of races awaited them: Time trials, reaction time racing and knockout racing. The teams would also be judged on different aspects including the engineering and manufacturing of the cars, their pit displays and verbal presentations.
It took the team nine months to research, design and build their car. “The car had to be as aerodynamically fast as possible, by applying the principles of physics and innovation into the design,” explained Khan.
Consequently, the team researched car shapes, designs and aerodynamics on the Internet to see how they could give their car the lowest drag coefficient to give it the fastest speed and found the teardrop shape had the lowest drag coefficient. They even looked at actual Formula 1 cars, such as the Ferrari, and noticed they were longer and narrower from the front.
“We then looked at nature’s fastest creatures for inspiration and found that the Peregrine Falcon, which is the fastest animal in the world, has a low drag coefficient due to its long and streamlined body, which reduces turbulence. Furthermore, the falcon is the Kingdom’s national bird so we wanted to incorporate it into our design,” said Sweidan.
The final design of their car, which was designed using SolidWorks, was a mix of teardrop and falcon shape; thus, it had a longer and narrower front. The team named their car, Saif, which means “sword” in Arabic, to further give it a Saudi identity.
Team Impact came across many hardships from having to learn everything themselves to a lack of resources. They were the first team to compete from Saudi Arabia so they weren’t able to get help or advice from previous competitors, unlike contestants from other countries.
“Saudi Arabia doesn’t have its own national or regional competitions and it has never had a team with experience in the F1 In Schools Competition. There are also no CAM centers, CNC (computer numerical control) machines, track or testing facilities. Furthermore, all necessary materials needed to be imported, making our purchases quite expensive,” said the team.
The biggest obstacle was not being able to test their car before the big day in Singapore. “Other countries were able to test their cars in their country and improve them, but that wasn’t the case for us as there are no testing facilities in Saudi Arabia. We were only able to test the physics of it meaning the air pressure of the car in our computer lab using the Virtual Wind Tunnel (VWT) software,” they added.
They even had to convince sponsors to support them in order to increase awareness of the educational competition and to develop brand identity. “Since we were the first team ever competing, we had to present our idea and design through presentations and explain to them how it would be beneficial to them,” said Mangera.
Khan believes more awareness about the competition is needed in the Kingdom. “F1 in Schools should be marketed better as there are many people who don’t know about it. Also, even though we were blessed to get monetary help from sponsors, we lacked help in manufacturing the car,” she said.
However, none of these hardships stopped them from wanting to compete, and they succeeded in getting sponsorship from PepsiCo International, Audi, Michelin, Falcons and AMG club.
“We enjoyed working as a team and learning how to use different software, hardware and equipment. Being part of this competition, we have been able to set an example for the students younger than us who all want to participate next year — both within our school and throughout the country we are representing,” said the team.
At a thrilling world finals event, Saif recorded 1.30 seconds — a great time given it was the first time the car was tested or raced. Unfortunately, however, it wasn’t enough to compete against the fastest car of the competition, which recorded a time of 1.07 seconds by German team, Aixtreme Racing.
The US team, Unitus Racing from James Madison Middle School, Virginia, and Southeast High School, Florida, were crowned the world champions — the US is the first country to have won the title for a second time. They were presented with the Bernie Ecclestone World Champions trophy and coveted Automotive and Motorsport Engineering scholarships to City University in London.
Even though Impact didn’t win, the team was awarded the “Best Newcomer” prize — an award given to the best team among the new comers each year — and were invited to the F1 Paddock on Sept. 24 to watch the race and meet the drivers.
“We are grateful to have been named the “Best Newcomer.” We hope that this achievement will encourage more students and schools from Saudi Arabia to participate in the competition in the future,” said Ariffin.
All the hard work was definitely worth it, as it was a great learning experience. “As a student aspiring to be an engineer, this competition gives a really good insight into the real world of engineering and of Formula One. The people we’ve met and the contacts we’ve made could also prove to be useful in the future. Without the support of our teachers and the sponsors, however, we would not have been able to get to this stage of competition,” said Malik.
“The competition is a really good platform for students to show off their knowledge in engineering. It also encourages students to engage with the local business environment and create good relations with local businesses — a skill that will be very useful in their professional careers. I hope that more schools will participate in this competition in the future,” said Khan.
The F1 in Schools competition is an internationally renowned annual competition funded by the existing Grand Prix teams to raise the profile of automotive engineering. With its sixth year having taken place last September, it is an educational initiative, sponsored by LG, which involves nine million students (ages 9 to 19) from 30 different countries.
The F1 in Schools World Finals competition was held in Singapore between the September 20 — 22 and was hosted by NGee Ann Polytechnic. A total of 17 trophies were presented during the awards ceremony at the Conrad Centennial on Sept. 22, which was attended by Formula One drivers Lucas di Grassi from Virgin Racing and BMW Sauber’s Kumui Kobayashi.
World Champions: Unitus Racing, USA
Second place: Zer0.9 , Australia/UAE collaboration team
Third place: Aixtreme Racing, Germany
Best-engineered car: Basiliisk Performance, Australia
Fastest car: Aixtreme Racing, Germany
Best team identity: Schaeffler Hypersonic, Singapore
Perseverance in the face of adversity: Celeritas, South Africa
Innovative thinking award: Aixtreme Racing, Germany
Best pit display: Govannon Racing, Ireland
Best team sponsorship & marketing award: Unitus Racing, USA
The collaboration award: Zer0.9, Australia/UAE collaboration team
Outstanding sportsmanship award: Impulse, Dubai, UAE
Best portfolio: Basiliisk Performance, Australia
Best verbal presentation: Dynamic, UK
Best newcomer award: Impact, Saudi Arabia
LG Moment of the Week: Team Zenith, Wales
Best team website award: Qi, China
