Byron Sixth Form College into national F1 Schools competition final

The Technically Viral team from Byron Sixth Form College, who took first place in the Professional Class of the regional heat for the F1 in Schools STEM Challenge National competition.

The pupils were successful at the north east regional final of the prestigious competition.

Byron Sixth Form College team Technically Viral won the Professional Class category and took Best Engineered Car Award in the regional final held at Nissan Sunderland.

This Formula 1® linked challenge, renowned as the largest global educational initiative, inspires students to put classroom theory into practice designing, developing, manufacturing and racing a scale model F1 racing car.

It features three classes of competition, with an Entry Class, offering a low-cost, time-efficient competition, which introduces students to the F1 in Schools programme, a Development Class that takes students to the second level, moving on the Professional Class for the more experienced students.

Technically Viral and the other north east class winners will compete against the winners from ten other regional finals at the national event next month, to be held at Silverstone in the iconic Wing building.

Alex Livingston, team manager from Technically Viral said: “We’re very excited to have won through to the national finals.

“We’ll be looking at all the areas of the judging elements to improve for Silverstone, but we really didn’t expect to win.”

Success at the national final could see them jet off to a Formula 1 Grand Prix later this year for the F1 in Schools World Finals, where they will compete for the Bernie Ecclestone World Champions Trophy.