Inside the competition building F1’s future engineering talent
Six Saudi Arabian high school students, four boys and two girls, are excitedly pacing around the Singapore F1 paddock. They are known as Team Lynx Racing, the recently crowned winner of the annual STEM Racing World Finals, which was held in Singapore during the week leading up to the grand prix. Coming out on top of an international, four-day engineering competition, Lynx Racing received the ...…
Six Saudi Arabian high school students, four boys and two girls, were seen excitedly moving around the Singapore F1 paddock. They were members of Team Lynx Racing, the winners of the recent STEM Racing World Finals held in Singapore prior to the grand prix. The competition, which has been running since 2000, aims to inspire young engineering talent.
Teams are given 20 minutes to design and manufacture a miniature F1 car powered by CO2 cartridges, aiming to travel the longest distance down a 20-meter track. The competition is rigorous, with teams judged on their engineering skills as well as their marketing and presentation abilities. The 2026 STEM Racing World Finals in Singapore attracted 91 teams from 36 countries, each competing for various awards.
Notably, Team Lynx Racing's victory was celebrated on the actual F1 grand prix podium, surrounded by stars such as two-time world champion Fernando Alonso. Many of the participating students, aged 15-18, expressed their enthusiasm for the competition, noting the value of gaining experience and learning under pressure. Some alumni of the competition, like Kyriakos Theofanidis, have leveraged their STEM Racing experience to secure roles at prominent F1 teams.
The competition, run in partnership with F1, has successfully provided a pathway for talented young engineers to aspire to careers in Formula 1.
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