RACING AHEAD: The members of the St Brigid's Secondary School's Formula 1 team are Ella Galvin (Resource Manager and Graphic Designer) and Kayla Byrne (Manufacturing & Design Engineer). Back row l-r: Ilona Sheehan (Team and Finance Manager) and Grace Daly (Marketing and Sponsorship Manager).

EXCLUSIVE

By Sean Moriarty

Transition Year students at St Brigid’s Secondary School will learn this week if they have been accepted in the prestigious nationwide 'F1 in Schools Ireland' competition.

The school has entered two teams and if either team is successful, they will become the first students from Kerry to participate in the nationwide competition that encourages STEM education through the design and build of a real-life racing car.

The students on Team Vroom-Vroom are Ilona Sheehan, Kayla Byrne, Grace Daly and Ella Galvin.

Representing Team Mario Cart are Alanna Brady, Kate Donoghue, Meadhbh Bennett and Abbie Daly.
Both teams have submitted a five-page plan to the competition organisers and will know on Monday if they have been selected to participate in the regional finals which are scheduled to take place in February and March.

“We decided to enter because there is such a broad range in the project. Two of us want to study physics, one of us wants to study marketing and one of us is into engineering and this project covers all of that,” Vroom Vroom team manager Ilona Sheehan told the Killarney Advertiser. “We have submitted our plan, which includes a CAD drawing of our racing car, and will know early next week if we make it to the regionals.”

They have secured financial backing from Formula Female, an organisation set up by Irish international hockey star and motorsport data engineer Nicci Daly to encourage more females to follow an engineering path in education and career choice.

The internationally recognised competition is endorsed by the Formula 1 Grand Prix Championship.