Chocolate Lightning, Penalties and Impromptu Filing Sessions, a Competition to Remember
The team “Lightning One” took part in the “F1 In Schools” competition in Hagen
In the past school year, students of the Q1 Mint project course have dedicated many hours into building a strong team, attracting sponsors and yes, actually building a race car. All of the month-long effort culminated into a final competition on the 6th and 7th of March in Hagen, where sixteen teams presented their projects and raced their cars against each other.
Team “Lightning One”, accompanied by Mr Friedrich, found themselves in the “SIHK” in Hagen on the sixth of March, where the races against the sixteen other teams from schools in NRW would take place the next day. Here they faced their first task: setting up the stand. They were given a limit of two hours to finish, with the leftover activities happening the next day.
In addition to having the fastest car, every team was also assessed on how they presented themselves through their stand, portfolio and presentations, with factors like team and time management contributing to the team’s overall score. The winning team is not necessarily the fastest one, in fact the previous years have shown the exact opposite, so the stand had to be perfect.
After successfully setting up the stand, the team, plus Mr Friedrich, then used the free evening to enjoy a celebratory meal, to acknowledge all the effort they had put in to get to where they were at that point.
The day of the competition began early, with the team still tired from practising their presentation late into the previous night. There was only time for a quick breakfast before the real event started. Presentations, scouting out the other teams, a few quick snacks in between and, of course, the races filled the day while rivalry sparked high.
The actual races were split into two sectors, the main races and the K.O races. The main races determined the speed of the car which would give the team more points the faster it was. Sadly, the team “Lightning One” had to acknowledge it would not gain many points here, not because they were not fast but because they had a plus one tenth of a second penalty as the car hadn’t quite fit the given criteria. In a race where every millisecond counts, this was a death penalty. The K.O races in comparison, were more for fun and did not count to the overall score. Here the cars would race two at a time, with the winner proceeding each time.
Everything came to a close with the final presentation and award ceremony. Even with the penalty, team “Lightning One” managed to come tenth out of the twelve senior teams, higher than any team from FvS ever before. In addition, they received a special praise for their merchandise: homemade chocolate lightning.
The winning team from the seniors “Tachyon” plus the team “Erlkönig” who came second, as well as the winning team “Dragonfly” from the juniors will go to the German championships as soon as the new date for it is decided (due to Corona this is still uncertain). However, you have to take into account that for several teams such as “Tachyon”, this was their second year competing, and therefore they already knew what to expect. Team “Lightning One” on the other hand had to manage a few surprises, leading to an impromptu filing session so the gas cartridge would actually fit into the car.
This leaves team “Lightning One” with only a final train ride home and while they might not have won, the experience remains worth every hour dedicated towards it.
Thanks to all our supporters and sponsors, especially “Polytron Kunststofftechnik GmbH & Co. KG”, “Klaus Stöcker Metallbearbeitung” and “Förderverein FvS Rösrath”.
Chiara Koop (Q1), Timo Friedrich
