Forty students in Years 9 and 10 spent the day at the Williams Racing Experience Centre to participate in their interactive STEM Experience Day.
The visit took place in recognition of International Women in Engineering Day (INWED).
Zara (Y10) shares her experience:
“I had an amazing day at the Williams Racing STEM experience day, filled with exciting tasters, as well as informative and practical answers to any and all questions about how to get into the racing industry, especially the STEM side.
As Williams’ Museum is worth between two and three hundred million pounds, we enjoyed a guided tour. It was absolutely fascinating to see the progression of the cars, from the very first car ever made by Williams, all the way through to the most recent one on display, which was George Russell’s last Williams Formula 1 car. We even got to take a close look at the steering wheel (which has an absurd number of buttons and panels on it), and the sixty percent size models they use for wind tunnel testing. Throughout the tour, our tour guide pointed out the improvements in design and material use over the years, linking it back to the STEM focus of the entire day.
Next, we went to the esport lounge, where we got the chance to race each other at Silverstone, the Austrian Grand Prix and the Singapore Grand Prix on their racing simulators, which we eventually got the hang of after all (as predicted) crashing on the first corner. It was explained to us that real F1 drivers use a far more sophisticated version of these simulators to practice without the risk or cost of actually racing. Though it was all fantastic, this was almost certainly everyone’s favourite part of the day, and it seemed to bring out the inherent competitiveness we all apparently possess.
After lunch, we were tasked with making our own nose cones, after learning of the importance of crumple zones to reduce the force exerted on the driver. We were given a budget to buy one-thousand-pound paper, tin foil, cotton wool and such, which we were then free to make into whatever nose cone we wanted, with two prototypes made and tested, and one final model tested against each other. It was really interesting to get to have a taste of what the process of finding what makes the fastest car is like, as well as very entertaining to get to do it for ourselves.
Probably the most educational section of the day was the discussion panel at the end of the day with six highly successful women from Williams, who work across a vast range of STEM jobs, answering the many questions we all had for them, ranging from what their day to day jobs are like, to what it’s like to work in such a male dominated field, to how they first entered the world of STEM and engineering. It was captivating to hear these women, who are still such a minority in the fields they work in, talk so passionately about their jobs. I’m sure inspiring at least a few of us there to follow in their footsteps.
I feel so privileged to be able to go on this trip, it was totally overwhelming in the best sense of the word, and I enjoyed every second of it, as I am sure many others did as well, and even if I was already interested in STEM and F1 to begin with I certainly am now.”
