Held in Austin, Texas the F1 in Schools™ World Finals 2016 saw Indian High School Dubai’s ‘Knighthawks’ walk ‎off with the Best Engineered Car Award, placing sixth overall in the competition.

‎‎‘Team Impulse’ from Repton School in Dubai also performed well, fielding the youngest ever team to compete at the ‎World Finals ‎

‎ ‎Abu Dhabi, UAE, October 26, 2016: A team of students from Dubai picked up a coveted award in ‎the finals of the world’s most prestigious international design competition: F1 in Schools™ – The Formula One® ‎STEM Challenge.‎

Created to engender excellence in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM), the annual ‎competition challenges students from all over the world to create their own Formula 1® team, which then designs, ‎constructs and races scale model cars.‎

The ‘Knighthawks’ team from Indian High School Dubai won the 'Best Engineered Car Award' sponsored by ‎Williams Racing at the F1 in Schools™ World Finals 2016.‎

The victory took place at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Austin, Texas, USA with three days of intense competition ‎delivering the toughest event yet. A total of 23 awards were presented at the glittering Awards Celebration Gala ‎Dinner attended by a star-studded audience of Formula 1® team representatives, drivers and paddock ‎personalities.‎

Sponsored by Williams Racing, the Best Engineered Car Award covers all aspects of engineering design, ‎manufacture, quality and specification compliance of the car and is usually won by the World Championship-‎winning team. The Knighthawk’s entry was superior in every way to its rivals, meaning the team walked off with the ‎prestigious trophy.‎

The team also won the Research and Development award sponsored by McLaren Honda for outstanding research ‎that translated into design improvement and technical development of the car.‎

Narrowly missing on a podium place by only 20 points, the historic win also meant the Knighthawks finished sixth ‎overall out of 39 teams from 23 countries – an unprecedented result for a UAE school at the annual event.‎

Also flying the flag for the UAE were Repton School’s ‘Team Impulse’ – the youngest ever team to appear at the ‎World Finals. The team managed to score equal first place on points in car scrutineering, being one of only two ‎teams achieving a specification score. However, they lost out to ‘Fast Tech Crew’ from Germany in the tie-breaker.‎

Team Impulse placed 24th out of 39 overall – a superb result considering their ages, managing to beat many older ‎and more experienced students.‎

Paul Bray, F1 in Schools™ Manager at Yas Marina Circuit, said: “This is a fantastic win for the Knighthawks and a ‎great performance from Team Impulse. They should both be very proud of their achievement. To walk off with the ‎most technically demanding award at this global event means that the UAE’s schools are becoming a force to be ‎reckoned with in this competition. I look forward to an even more impressive showing in 2017!”‎

F1 in Schools™ challenges students to create their own Formula One team which is commissioned to design, ‎construct and race the fastest miniature Formula One Car of the Future; a 21cm long scale model built from the F1 ‎in Schools™ model block and powered by a compressed air cylinder. Each team of between three and six ‎students creates a ‘pit’ display and showcases their work in developing their race car. At the World Finals each ‎team brings along a pit display, their cars and portfolio, as well as having prepared a verbal presentation for the ‎judges. The cars race on a 20 metre track, with the cars covering the distance in around one second.‎

The F1 in Schools™ World Finals 2016 took place with the assistance of a host of supporters including Formula ‎One Management, Circuit Of The Americas, The Institution of Engineering and Technology, Autodesk, City ‎University London and UCL Engineering. ‎