Formula One

On Thursday the 22nd of March, me, three of my friends and sixteen other students from Years 7-10, visited the Formula 1 Australian Grand Prix 2018 at Albert Park. This was an amazing experience as we got to see many different, exquisite cars from various decades and also got quite hands on with the workshops. One of the workshops that stood out were from the defence force, The Australian Air Force (AAF), which was quite interesting; I should have done the air force cadets at school 😊. We even learnt how to put on one of the pilot safety suits and played with an air traffic control simulation where you get to take control of the landing and taking-off planes. It was actually quite stressful. There was also an area where a few police officers had brought in their cars which you could take a photo with and also a “drug test bus” where we could get a breath test, which was particularly exciting! A lot of the workshops used Virtual Reality, for instance there was one where you could fly a plane, which was fun but sickening at the same time. Besides that, we learnt a lot about supercars and the hard work that goes into making them, like the designs, the engineers and mechanics behind it. We even got to meet two engineers from Swinburne who talked to us about it and the work that goes into turning a normal road, into a race track! I really enjoyed this day as it wasn’t just watching the races, but also having a little walk around, exploring different workshops, learning new things, getting food and just having fun!

Sona Hariharan 9E

One Year 7s view on Formula One

On the 22nd of March, 20 students volunteered to go on an excursion to Albert Park to watch and learn about Formula One. For those of you who don’t know what Formula One is, it’s a massive racing car race where drivers represent their countries and compete for top spot.

At 8:45 we met at gate 2 and set off. We caught the tram up to Albert Park, where we sat down and had a snack while we waited for some more students to arrive. We were all so excited because we could hear the cars warming up in the distance. Finally, we all had our tickets punched and we were off to explore!

The first things that we saw were some amazing cars! There were vintage cars with roofs that you can pull back to let the sun in, and there were brand new sports cars which looked as if no one had ridden in them yet.

After we finished admiring the cars, we saw some awesome tanks and helicopters! With real soldiers standing with them.

Next, we picked up our earplugs and went to see some of the real action. We walked into the grand stand and found some seats. All the cars were lined up and ready to race. The lights went 3, 2, 1 and they were off! It was so loud that I could feel the grand stand vibrating beneath my feet.  Did you know that a formula one car can accelerate to 62mph in under 2 seconds and have a top speed of 200mph! Unfortunately, the cars that we saw weren’t actually F1 cars, so they didn’t go that fast, but they were still the fastest thing that I’ve ever seen!

After we watched the race, we headed off to listen to a seminar given by some of the F1 drivers. They had very some interesting stories to tell such as one of the drivers practiced driving on a virtual reality F1 simulator for up to six hours a day when he was training to become an F1 driver.

The highlight of the day for me was the air show.  The royal Australian Air Force Roulettes hit the skies above Albert Park, doing amazing twists and turns and tricks!

If you get a chance, you should definitely go on the Formula one excursion next year!

Evie Scott 7L1