Irish students bound for glory in F1 in Schools World Championships

A team of students from St David's Holy Faith secondary school in Greystones, Co Wicklow, will represent Ireland at the 2013 World Championships for F1 in Schools next month.

F1 in Schools is a competition for second-level students to design and manufacture a model Formula One car using computer aided design (CAD) and computer aided manufacture (CAM) software to create a detailed 3D model of the car.

The Irish Bardahl Racing team will compete against 40 countries, with more than a million students participating at the world finals in Austin, Texas, which coincides with the US Formula One Grand Prix at the Circuit of the Americas in Austin.

In conjunction with the design and testing of their car, the Bardahl Racing team have to raise sponsorship and demonstrate to the judges their marketing and communication skills.

The team, comprising Christopher Lynch (marketing and communications manager), Conor Darcy (graphic designer), Joseph Moran (team manager) and Patrick Flaherty (manufacturing engineer), competed against 93 teams from 63 secondary schools across the country to be selected to represent Ireland at the world finals.

Christopher Lynch said: “We have spent the last year working extensively on the project and are very confident of our chances”.

If previous achievements from their school are anything to go by, then we’re sure they will succeed. In 2009 the Koni Kats team from the same school won the World Championships and the much-coveted Bernie Eccelstone trophy. You can follow the Bardahl Team’s progress by visting bardahl-racing.com and watch the competition live online via f1inschools.com