In total, 68 teams (of 350+ students) from around the world took part in the World Finals and we’re very proud of “our” youngsters. As we’ve said before, they are already winners because of all the things they have learnt (and often passed on) during the global competition. Amy Martin (World Finalist alumni and co-awards presenter who now works at Mercedes AMG HPP) summed this up when she was asked “What did YOU learn from appearing in the World Finals that you put into practice now in the real world of F1 and a job working with Mercedes?” – “Well…it’s really difficult to pinpoint one specific skill this competition gave me because it really did round me as a person…,” she said, before adding “confidence, the ability to think on my feet, and the ability to overcome challenges as they come to you….being able to be resilient and pick up and keep going”. All skills that will help the youngsters in their future careers, no matter what direction they take.
Here we copy the team’s own words from an earlier post on their Instagram account the day after the event:
“It was the @f1inschoolshq 2023 World Finals awards ceremony last night bringing the competition to a close for the 68 competing teams from across the globe.
Although we are obviously disappointed to not come away with any silverware, we did come 6th overall, had the 3rd best engineered car and were nominated for two further awards in verbal presentation and team identity at the biggest World Finals in history.
This is a huge achievement when you look at the standard of work produced by all the competing teams. After four years we are happy to leave the competition knowing we tried our very best.
We would like to say a huge thank you to all our partners, community, friends and family as we could not have done this without you.
In the following weeks we will release our final highlights video to say goodbye to the competition, it’s been unforgettable. For now, here are some photos of us during the pit lane walk and the final day of the World Finals.”
In the end, the Aramco F1 in Schools Finals were won by “Recoil Racing” from Germany (well done!) who received their award from Khalid Al Zamil, Public Affairs Vice President at Aramco. Addressing all the finalists present (including Eclipse) he said: “You are all Champions for participating in the World Finals” reminding them that they had made it there out of 1.8 million young people that wanted to participate in the competition – from 29 thousand schools and 58 countries worldwide.
If you want to see the webcast of the Final again, you can see it here.
Picture: Eclipse’s 2023 World Finals car: Eclipse-E7. Picture credit: Eclipse/Queen Elizabeth’s Grammar School, Faversham.
