Youngsters from a secondary school were firmly back in the driver’s seat when they scooped a prize in the national finals of a racing competition.

Ouragan Platine, a student team from The Nelson Thomlinson School in Wigton, designed a race car in the North West Regional Finals of the F1 in Schools Competition, winning a place in the national finals which took place last week.

The team of six 15 and 16-year-olds, one of 48 teams competing, won the Development Class Verbal Presentation at the event which was held at the Airbus’ West Factor in Broughton.

Teams were required to give a 10 minute presentation about their project to the judges.

They were judged on visuals, team contribution, dynamic energy, engagement, innovation and learning experience.

F1 in Schools is a hugely popular competition, engaging and inspiring students with engineering through the practical application of STEM skills to create their own Formula 1 team and car from scratch.

Students have to prepare business plans, design, analyse, make, test and race a scale model Formula 1 car.

They then assess their performance against other schools at a series of regional finals around the country. The best four teams at each regional final compete at the UK National Finals.

The Wigton team - Matthew Jones, Timothy Race, Jordan Ion, Rebecca Watson, John Heard and Brodie Coulthard - are not new to the competition. They entered last year, winning the entry class, and this year won the development class in the regional finals.

Andrew Denford, founder and chairman, F1 in Schools, said after the event: “I’m blown away - we saw the UK record beaten by nine teams, a tight race on and off the track for podium places with talented UK champions crowned today at our biggest UK event with over 250 students, held at one of the largest manufacturing facilities in the world building the wing for the largest commercial aircraft in the world.”

Dale Fitt, technology teacher at the school, said: “I’m delighted that the team’s resilience, and initiative has been recognised in such a prestigious competition by them winning Best Verbal Presentation award.

“I hope this award gives the group the confidence to put themselves forward for future events as I’m sure they will thrive.”

Mr Denford added: “We’ve seen an unbelievably high level of work from the F1 in Schools students, with skills that go far beyond the classroom and have enormous value, not only within their school education but in a broader context with increased confidence and life skills that will be invaluable to them in the future.

“My congratulations go to all our teams and I know they are destined to have very successful careers.”