Race Day Experience from STEMx by Oracle Red Bull Racing

Last Wednesday, students saw a Red Bull Racing van outside the front of the science block. Quickly rumours were abuzz in the school that Max Verstappen himself was in the Sports Hall. While this wasn’t true, we did have a lovely team from STEMx by Oracle Red Bull Racing who had come to run a Formula 1 day for Y9 students.

The day began with a bit of a history of the Red Bull company, before the backstory of the Red Bull F1 Team, which was purchased for £1 in 2004! Students were then split into teams and undertook a range of activities from simulator racing to a pit stop challenge where students had to change two wheels and a front wing as quickly as possible. There was also a bit of coding, practice post-race interviews and car design activities.

In the afternoon students made a F1 car from templates provided by the team and were allowed to modify their own cars as they wished. Once this was done it was onto the drag race! The pressure to perform was building, as the students waited for lights out before launching their cars down the drag strip. One student, Sophie O, was victorious by a wide margin, and was rewarded by getting to hold Max Verstappen’s golden helmet on the podium.

The day was a great success and we would like to say a massive thank you to the STEMx team, all staff that helped and most importantly the students for getting involved.