Engineers at BAE Systems in Rochester have teamed up with students from the Queen Elizabeth’s Grammar school in Faversham for the national finals of this year’s F1 in Schools competition.

F1 in Schools is a global competition which challenges students to design and develop model cars and then race them.

The Faversham school team, called Team Eclipse, are following in the footsteps of the school's previous entry - Team Evolve - which was crowned world champions last year .

This year's team, which has already made it through regional heats, is sponsored by BAE Systems through the company’s community investment programme, which provides support for local charities and community groups.

The funding helped to extend a junior version of the project to other local primary schools, promoting Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM) to children and helping to inspire the next generation of engineers.

Business development officer at BAE Systems Rochester, Scott Heyburn, said: "Team Eclipse have been great ambassadors for engineering - they’re so enthusiastic about the project and F1 that they’ve taken everything in their stride. They should be incredibly proud to have got this far in the competition and we’ll be cheering them on from the virtual stands in the national finals."

Javier Gladstone Contioso, principle for Team Eclipse said: "We’ve learnt so much from everyone we have worked with and to tap into the world class knowledge at BAE Systems in Rochester has been a fantastic opportunity for us. Without the support of our sponsors, none of our success would have been possible. But we’re not there yet and still have the ambition to win and become world champions."

Because of the pandemic, the delayed finals will be a virtual event and streamed live on the F1 in Schools YouTube channel .

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