Racecar engineer makes world final

Tiro Racing Team

A technician apprentice from Imperial is heading to Kuala Lumpur in September for the world finals of the F1 in Schools engineering competition.

Matthew Watkins co-founded the Tiro Racing team with fellow apprentices from Rolls Royce, Siemens, GSK and the National Physical Laboratory – all of whom are currently training at Kingston College. 

At the recent UK F1 in Schools Final at Silverstone, Tiro Racing came second overall (with ‘best engineered car’), thereby booking their place to Malaysia. 

Tiro Racing's vehicle

F1 in Schools is the world’s largest multi-disciplinary STEM competition. Students form teams of 4-6 members to design, manufacture and test a small-scale F1 car complying with a stringent set of regulations. The vehicles are raced on a straight drag strip, propelled by a gas canister. Alongside this, teams must consider team identity, branding, marketing and sponsorship, similar to how a real Formula 1 team would operate. These teams must then compete against each other at a Regional, National and International Level, putting their handiwork through the tough scrutiny of a panel of professional judges.

Matthew said: “Myself and the Team Manager Josh were at school together and had competed in F1 in Schools before, so we had some prior experience. But Tiro came together by coincidence in that we secured apprenticeships at difference places – myself Imperial, Josh at NPL – so when we found ourselves together at Kingston, we thought why not give it a go? We’ve got a great team now, and we’ve had support from Kingston tutors who let us work on the project at lunchtimes and after college. Imperial has also helped with advice and some funding.” 

Drag racing

He added: “It hasn’t really sunk in yet that we’re heading to Malyasia, just a few weeks before the real F1 Grand Prix starts. The competition will be incredibly tough, but hopefully we can make some gains for example in the aerodynamics and the wheel bearings and put ourselves in the best possible position.”

Paul Brown (Physics) is a Mechanical Instrumentation Workshop Manager in the Department of Physics at Imperial and helps run the College’s workshop technician apprentice scheme (see panel, right). He said:

“F1 in Schools is now a major event and we’re hugely impressed with Matthew and Tiro racing team’s incredible achievement – their professionalism and team working is a real credit to them. 

“All of us at Imperial will be rooting for Matthew and the team when they head out to Malyasia, and we look forward to welcoming him and putting his skills to use when he starts the next phase of his training at the College in July.”

Matthew says that he has always enjoyed designing and making things, so after A-levels an apprenticeship seemed a logical step – and Imperial held particular appeal.

“I’m also interested in the research and development side of things – not just being on a production line making the same thing over and over again – so Imperial with its reputation for innovation seemed perfect. Often technicians in industry specialise in using just one machine, but at Imperial there is huge variety of equipment and projects. The workshop teams are always pushing what is possible, making innovations and improving on current techniques.”

Tiro Racing Team is currently looking for sponsors for its world title bid in Kuala Lumpa, Malaysia in September. Vist their website for more details.