Alain Prost

In conjunction with Renault Australia, St Bede’s College welcomed to the school four-time Formula 1 World Champion, Alain Prost, and Mr Patrice Ratti, head of Renault Sports Cars Global, ahead of the 2017 Formula 1 Rolex Australian Grand Prix.

Mr Prost and Patrice Ratti addressed Year 8 students as well as a select number of senior students. They also met with Joel Bright, Peter Russell, Will Clifton and the Brighton Secondary School contingent who together as Team Infinitude came second outright last year and set a new world record at the global F1 in Schools STEM Challenge competition in Austin, Texas.

“Team Infinitude created a Formula 1 racer in miniature and had to cope with many similar engineering challenges that full-size racing teams, such as our own Renault Sport Formula One Team, have to grapple with,” said Justin Hocevar, Managing Director of Renault Australia.

“They studied structural, aerodynamic, frictional and road-holding issues and even came up with a unique and ultimately successful Launch Energy Recovery System that bought them critical tenths of a second advantage that helped secure their record,” Mr Hocevar said.

Mr Prost and Mr Ratti was invited to the school to congratulate the members of Team Infinitude on their record-breaking run. To acknowledge their achievements, Mr Prost presented them each with an autographed model replica of his 1993 Williams FW15C World Championship car. Believing in the benefits of the program, Mr Prost and Mr Ratti were also present to encourage more students to embark on this year’s F1 in Schools program so that they may follow in the wheel tracks of their colleagues, pursuing excellence in Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths. “While Alain Prost’s many victories were the result of hard work, calm, split-second decision making and a strong competitive spirit, Patrice shows the students that an aptitude for technical thinking can take you a long way in a varied career,” Mr Hocevar said.

The global F1 in Schools Technology Challenge involves more than 10 million school students from 17,000 schools across 44 nations each year, including around 40,000 in Australia. It is designed to stimulate interest in the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Maths (STEM) subject areas. St Bede’s College has been committed to this program for 4 years now and have just launched it for another year with Year 7 and 8 students. Throughout the years that the program has been running, students have become very passionate about the work they undertake and produce results, whether in the fields of engineering, science, finance, marketing and public relations, that are nothing short of amazing and exciting for both them as individuals, their team, their supporters and their fellow colleagues. As was explained by one of the lead teachers of the F1 in Schools program, “It was an exhilarating moment seeing that world record breaking time flashing for all to see and admire. Yes we set a new world record time yet despite this, what mattered most from an educational perspective was that these students got to be exposed to so many diverse processes and benefits throughout the course of the program, impacting on them positively throughout their campaign and no doubt towards their future learning.”

Renault Australia were very appreciative of St Bede’s College hosting the event and were delighted that it received coverage on two television news programs – TEN Eyewitness News at 5:00 pm and Nine News at 6:00 pm. These bulletins can be viewed from the following links.

Channel 10 News: https://tenplay.com.au/news/melbourne/2017/3/23/grand-prix-prep

Channel 9 News: https://www.9now.com.au/nine-news/vic/episode-79

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