F1 in Schools National Finals 2024
May 15, 2024In March, Synergise, comprised of Year 12 students Daniel McWilliam, Rod Workman, Tahlia Rose and Noah Wheeler, travelled to Adelaide to participate in the Australian National F1 in Schools Competition. We had an incredible time and walked away with so many new skills and memories. Out of the 26 teams in our division, we placed 4th (narrowly missing 3rd by just 4 points out of 1000!).
Competition occurred across 4 days, with judging of Engineering and Enterprise aspects of the competition.
Day 1 of competition involved scrutineering of competition cars. This was one of the team’s proudest moments of the competition as we were the only team to achieve a mark of 80/80!
On Day 2, the team set up a Trade Display which was visited by competitors and industry professionals, and were able to discuss the team’s work and car design features.
Day 3 & 4 were the official competition days. The team presented to a range of judges about all aspects of the competition, including project management, marketing, collaboration and engineering of their team. This included CAD/CAM, where the team affirmed their knowledge of car design and manufacturing. They were proud to place second in this area (and were only 1 point behind the first-place team).
The all-important racing also occurred across these days. All the pressure was on Rod, the driver, to deliver a rapid reaction time, and the car to perform well. Synergise had the 4th fastest car, with a time of 1.084 seconds! After all the regular racing, the team placed 3rd fastest in overall Grand Prix time and qualified for knockouts. The team are proud of their car as it was incredibly competitive against teams with much bigger budgets, proving the effectiveness of our design and manufacturing processes.
The competition was an incredible experience, and the team were proud to represent St Francis Xavier College and their sponsors to the rest of Australia. A big thank you to Mrs McFarland and Mr Pitt for their support in the lead-up to the competition and in Adelaide.