Whether they were pretending to be on the pit-wall, in the garage, or writing articles such as this one, motorsport-loving children across the globe will have imagined that they were working in an F1 team once upon a time. For the past 20 years, Aramco F1 in Schools has been making that a reality.

Speak to anyone who has competed in F1 in Schools, and you’ll quickly learn of their belief in the programme. On paper, the not-for-profit, F1-backed initiative sounds almost too good to be true.

The global STEM competition challenges students aged nine to 19 to team up and design, manufacture, test, and race their own miniature racing cars, managing their budget, travel and accommodation as part of the challenge. For many, this was a first taste of what has since become a fully-fledged career, with graduates up and down the Formula 1 paddock.

Mary Aldersley has spent the last four years working for McLaren as a Coordinator in the Transmission and Component Assembly team. She had initially joined our graduate scheme after successfully completing a degree in Motorsport Engineering at Oxford Brookes University, but it all began with an entry into the F1 in Schools competition in 2012.

“My experience of the competition was amazing, it was the only thing at the time that offered this kind of experience in engineering,” Mary says. “I got involved through my high school engineering class. This was one of the modules that we had to complete, I did it for two years and competed in regional and national finals each time, even winning some awards!

“It was the full package of designing, making, and racing the car. You even had to have it scrutineered, and justify your design to a panel of judges. This included providing a business presentation and raising money through gaining outside-of-school sponsorship. You had such a great time – I had never been exposed to something like this. At the time, it was an eye-opener as to what I wanted to do as a future career.”

The competitors work with a similar CAD (computer-aided design) software to our team at McLaren. It’s used to design and test the miniature air-powered cars - which are made from F1 model blocks - used as part of the competition. Just like in Formula 1, the event has its own technical regulations, which are updated yearly. For 2023, the halo was introduced as a requirement on the cars.

The challenge culminated in a prestigious final hosted in Singapore, where a record 370+ students from 68 teams and 26 countries competed for a place on the podium.

Teams are judged in a variety of different areas, from design, production, and the speed of the car to project management, marketing, collaboration and innovation. McLaren has supported the Research and Development award for the past 15 years, and this year, it was presented to the winner by McLaren Race Engineer Jose Manuel López García. It was won by a team of students from Marie-Therese-Gymnasium Erlangen in Germany.

 “It was fantastic to attend the F1 in Schools World Finals,” Jose said. “The work all the teams have done through the different phases of the competition over the last few months and this whole week here in Singapore is sensational. Such a high level of engineering, preparation and attention to detail. That is exactly what it's all about in F1.

“But the most inspiring experience of it all was the big smiles, the passion and the team spirit of the girls and boys coming up on stage to collect their awards. I'm looking forward to seeing what the F1 in Schools 2024 season brings!”

The competition played a role in inspiring Mary to pursue a career in motorsport, and whilst completing her degree, she went on to also compete in Formula Student. It was during her time in the F1 in Schools competition that she first heard of Formula Student, which is known as Europe’s most established educational engineering competition.

“After my first year at university, I knew that F1 was the goal,” Mary continues. “To work for such a historic and powerful team like McLaren was always the target, and I was successful getting onto the graduate scheme right out of university, and I've been here ever since.”

The impact that F1 in Schools has had on Mary’s career has inspired her to not only champion the event since, but to work on it as a judge and encourage the next generation of budding motor racing talent.

Utilising the experience she has gained in the industry and from her own success in the competition, Mary usually acts as a judge in either the engineering design or business presentation categories. She’ll mark students based on the design, the reasoning behind their concept, and even their choice of team name, which plays a role from a marketing standpoint.

“You are one of a panel of judges,” she explains. “Take the business presentation as an example: you will listen to the presentation, take notes, and then ask questions and provide feedback at the end. Essentially, you will go through everything they did to get to where they are today, standing in front of the judges.

“I believe so strongly in the competition and what it offers students as it gives everyone an opportunity to be involved. It shows that in F1, you don’t always have to ‘be an engineer’, you can be interested in social media and marketing, sponsorship, or creating the team’s image.

“You can enjoy the business side of a project and produce the presentations and documentation. You could become a project manager who keeps everything on track and assigns jobs, you could be a design engineer working with CAD software to create the car. Or, if you prefer to work with your hands, you could be the manufacturer of the car. There are SO many opportunities that this competition offers!”