Page 4 - 2019 - Altiora Vol 71 Sem 2

4 | F1 in SCHOOLS WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS

BEST IN THE WORLD IN DIGITAL MARKETING!

Our BMGS F1 In Schools Team of Year 10 students The competition was stiff. 55 of the best teams
Nicholas Hayes, Finley Hastie, Zachary Burgess from around the world were there, many of whom
and Matthew Foster, competed at the World were older, and who had made multiple attempts to
Championships of this prestigious Schools’ STEM get this far in the Professional Class competition.
Challenge, held in Abu Dhabi, in November. In We didn’t do as well as we had hoped in the main
an outstanding result, the team won the Digital racing events, but we managed to be seeded 14 th
Marketing discipline of the competition. in the knock out competition. We did well in the

Earlier in the year, and competing under their scrutineering (adherence to car regulations) scoring
100/110 [and] reasonably well in the judging
BMGS name Thrust Vector, the team qualified
for the National Finals in the Development Class interviews and presentations. It all came down to
the final presentation night. In the end we achieved
which, in a fantastic result, they won. In winning
their national Final, they were then partnered with the award for Best Digital Media [and] our final
placement amongst the teams was 35 out of 55
th
a team from the USA and they set about preparing
for the World Championships, this time, however, teams”
in the Professional Class. This immediately put
the boys on a steep learning curve, as the rules of
the competition were much more stringent, and
the specifications for the cars very different from
the National Development Class. They were now
merged with a team called Celeritas, from Georgia,
and together they were rebranded with a new team
name: Paradoxum.

In the boys’ own words: “Little did we know when
we started out how difficult this competition
would be, how much we would learn, and what an
incredible life experience it would be for us all.

We have learned so much, far beyond what
classroom lessons could have possibly taught us.
Not just the disciplines of engineering, design, CAD,
manufacturing, marketing, fundraising, presentation
and team work skills; [we also] learned how to think
on our feet, how to get the best of the team’s skills,
how to be resilient... how to think big, dream big, and L to r: Matthew Foster, Fin Hastie, Mr. Michael Laws (STEM Co-
to do what we thought was unimaginable. ordinator), Nicholas Hayes and Zach Burgess after their win.