New Delhi: Too lucrative a sport and a popularly enjoyed game only on mobile screens or play stations - `the Formula one car racing` or `F1` now aims to ignite and engage younger minds and facilitate them to achieve their dreams as careers.
School children will get a chance to give wings to their dream car designs and race them with cars made by their peers.
The `F1 in schools` initiative by the Formula one chief Bernie Ecclestone is already functional and received across the globe in 42 countries. It included all large economy countries in Europe and the USA, China and Japan in Asia and Brazil in South Africa.
"A miniature car curved out of a Balsa wood will be designed by them. The scale-model Formula One car will race on a 20 metre track, a uniform propellant and engine manufactured in England will be fitted in the car designed by the students on Computer Aided Design or Computer Aided Manufacture software." the India Coordinator for F1 schools, Aaditya Taangri, said.
The initiative aims to educate children of car racing engineering and profession.
"We aim to nurture their talents and incubate them under the expert guidance of the engineers of the formula one racing teams. A two-day seminar will be conducted with each registered school before the competition, this will equip the students to understand the technology involved".
"It is surprising for a country like India which produces thousands of quality engineers but has only one team - `the force India` and only celebrated driver - Narain Karthikeyan in international arena. Many of us are less informed about the other aspects of formula one team; like managers, engineers. We identified this aspect as potential reason to launch this programme in India."
The F1 school initiative technology challenge was launched in the capital in the month of November with already number of schools registered like DPS RK Puram, the British School, Sanskriti school, Salwant Public school and the Dhirubai Ambani School in Mumbai.
Car savvy students from registered schools will be competing under three categories. Junior school from standard- 7th to 9th; intermediate school- standard 10th to 12th and senior category- 1st and 2nd year in the college.
Criteria for selection include car speed, final car design, verbal presentation, engineering development, team work, project presentation and marketing display.
The best selected model in each category will compete in the international level for a grand scholarship of whopping 250,000 sterlings to study Motor Automotive related Engineering, law or medicine in the prestigious `City University London.`
The students of registered schools in Delhi will compete their regional level competition from 9th to 11th of January. Round two registration in the capital will begin in the month of April, 2013.
Indian-born first woman Team Principal in Formula One, popularly called `The First Lady of Formula One`- Monisha Kaltenborn and her Sauber Motorsport is directly involved in the project.
PTI
First Published: Tuesday, January 01, 2013, 13:04