Inside the Competition Building F1’s Future Engineering Talent

Saudi Arabia’s Team Lynx Racing Crowned 2026 STEM Racing World Champions in Singapore

Six Saudi Arabian high school students — four boys and two girls — were still buzzing with adrenaline as they moved through the Formula 1 paddock at the Singapore Grand Prix. As Team Lynx Racing, they had just claimed the top prize at the 2026 STEM Racing World Finals, held at Resorts World Sentosa during the week leading up to the race weekend. The victory brought with it a trophy presentation on the actual F1 grand prix podium, a coveted Aston Martin garage tour, and a meeting with two-time world champion Fernando Alonso. For several members of the team, the hope is clear: the next time they step into an F1 garage, they will be wearing a team kit.

From Miniature Cars to Major Competition: How STEM Racing Works

Founded in 2000 under the name F1 in Schools, STEM Racing was created to channel the curiosity of talented young people into real engineering disciplines. Teams of three to six students are tasked with designing and manufacturing a miniature Formula 1 car powered by CO2 cartridges, capable of reaching speeds of up to 70km/h across a 20-metre track. Cars are designed using professional CAD software, with aerodynamics a central focus as teams work to reduce drag and optimize performance. Final models are manufactured on CNC routers, with front and rear wings produced via 3D printing, before being assembled, painted, and submitted to scrutineering under a rulebook exceeding 70 pages.

But the competition extends well beyond the track. Teams are also judged on a marketing portfolio and sponsorship plan, brand identity, verbal presentations before expert judges, and a pit booth display. The 2026 Singapore finals were the biggest in the event’s 26-year history, with 91 student teams from 36 countries competing across all disciplines. The caliber of work on display at the Resorts World Sentosa ballroom drew admiration from industry veterans and fellow competitors alike. Noah, a member of German team Spectrum — which claimed third place on the podium — captured the competitive intensity: “I think it’s important to gain experience, but I also love the competition element. You really learn to work under pressure as a team.” Singapore-based team Nebula’s team leader and design engineer Aarav spoke to the value of international exposure: “The level here is so high. It is really interesting to see how other teams solve the same problems.”

A Proven Springboard to Formula 1 Careers

While STEM Racing does not offer a direct route into F1 — most competitors are teenagers — its track record as a career launchpad is well documented. Greece’s Kyriakos Theofanidis won the event in 2016 and is now a mechanical engineer at Red Bull Ford Powertrains. James Mitchell from Australia competed at the World Finals as recently as 2023 before being recruited by Aston Martin. British alumnus Laurence Vines now works at Williams as a structural design engineer and remains involved with the competition as a pundit, mentor, and judge.

Vines, who discovered the competition by chance as a teenager, described the path it opened for him: “I wanted to work in F1 and when I was 15 I wrote letters to all of the teams applying for work experience. Not having any connections in the sport, I just had no clue what the way in was until I discovered the competition by coincidence. In partnership with what was then called F1 in Schools, Williams ran its engineering academy where they’d support you through your studies, and I knew that was my way in.” He credits the competition with giving him early exposure to tools that most engineers don’t encounter until university: “Before I took part I didn’t know what those things were. I wouldn’t have touched them until university. At 15, I’m doing my first CAD, designing this miniature car. Under regulations which set you up so well to work in something like Formula 1. They’re over 70 pages long with lots of detail. Since then, I’ve gone on to study Mechanical Engineering at University College London, which sponsored the competition and awarded me a full scholarship. I then did a placement at Williams.”

Amy Martin took a similarly unconventional journey. She used the competition to pursue an engineering degree, later pivoting to finance, and ultimately landed at Mercedes High Performance Powertrains as a financial controller — a role that fused both worlds. “At the start I wasn’t really that interested in F1,” she recalled. “I just got my friends together in school and we were one of the few all-girl teams at the World Finals that year. After we won the Marketing Award, I got selected for the Williams Engineering Academy in 2016. They took us into the paddock where I met Nico Rosberg. That was when I decided I would do anything to get into F1.” She described the moment with characteristic candor: “For a 16-year-old girl, it was genuinely electrifying to be there and look at what my future could look like.” On what the competition gave her most, Martin was direct: “Confidence is the main thing. When you’re asking someone who’s 15 or 16 to hold a presentation in front of world-class F1 engineers and judges, that’s pretty tough. It instills a level of fearlessness. And the standard of some of the kids who compete… wow. They are not just so incredibly intelligent, but to be able to articulate themselves on a world stage, it’s honestly great. It has created some really good all-rounders.”

F1 Teams Take Notice: The Race for Young Engineering Talent

STEM Racing’s growing prestige mirrors a wider trend inside Formula 1, where the budget cap era has accelerated the race to identify and develop early-career engineering talent. The majority of teams have now established graduate schemes, engineering academies, and placement programmes. McLaren Racing Director Randy Singh explained the strategic thinking: “All teams realise the importance of young talent in the team. New ideas and people contribute so much. We have a very established graduate scheme at McLaren and many of the people who’ve come off that scheme are here at track this weekend, like Oscar’s performance engineer and our lead strategist. It’s a really good way of getting super talent into the team. Things like STEM Racing are super useful for kids of that age because it teaches you a lot about how a Formula 1 team works. There’s design, there’s research, there’s marketing and commercial aspects as well. That’s all really useful experience.”

Singh also offered broader advice to aspiring F1 professionals: “As long as you’re involved in some kind of deep technical endeavor where you work as a team, whether it’s STEM Racing, Formula Student, rocketry, or even doing sports to a very high level can be in itself fairly technical, then I think that really equips you well to work in a fast-paced team environment like F1. I certainly wouldn’t limit people to one route or another, but these kinds of things make a big difference to people’s applications. Sometimes, dealing with the dysfunctions of a team is a key thing that you don’t really experience at university until you get to a professional environment, so that’s super useful.”

26 Years On: A Founder’s Vision Gaining Momentum

STEM Racing founder Andrew Denford, who is also CEO of Denford — the family-run company that supplies CNC tools to the education sector — launched the initiative in 2000 as Jaguar F1 in Schools. When Jaguar withdrew from Formula 1, Bernie Ecclestone permitted the programme to retain the F1 branding. The initiative now spans 77 countries. Despite the competition’s longevity, Denford believes its 2024 rebrand to STEM Racing marks a genuine turning point: “You’ve got to educate people on why they need to teach STEM in school. We started this in 2000 to get kids interested in engineering and manufacturing, first as Jaguar F1 in schools and when they pulled out of F1, Bernie Ecclestone allowed us to keep using the F1 name. It’s just consumed my life, really. We’ve now got 77 countries who are involved in the programme. The level keeps getting higher. I’ve got to be careful I don’t start talking technical terms, because they’ll just blow me out of the water.”

F1’s post-Netflix popularity surge has also boosted participation numbers, prompting STEM Racing to introduce entry-level school programmes for children as young as six. When asked about his core ambition for participants, Denford said: “We want them to find out what their skill set is. If you look at all the job roles; team principal, aerodynamicist, manufacturing engineer, marketing or project manager, they’ll find within that team of six what they want to do. Then they can develop what they’ve learned and take it into the wider world.”

Why This Matters

STEM Racing sits at the intersection of two significant forces shaping the future of motorsport: Formula 1’s global popularity boom and the sport’s intensifying competition for engineering talent under the financial regulations of the budget cap era. As F1 teams race to build leaner, smarter workforces, programmes like STEM Racing have become informal but highly effective feeder systems, producing engineers who arrive at top teams already fluent in CAD, CFD, and FEA tools, as well as commercial and presentation skills rarely developed before university. The proven career trajectories of alumni at Red Bull Ford Powertrains, Aston Martin, Williams, and Mercedes HPP reinforce the competition’s legitimacy. For host nations and education systems, the event also carries measurable value — Saudi Arabia’s Team Lynx Racing victory in particular signals the strength of STEM investment in the Gulf region. With 77 countries now participating and younger entry pathways being introduced, the programme’s influence on the next generation of motorsport professionals is only set to deepen.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is STEM Racing and how does the competition work?

STEM Racing, formerly known as F1 in Schools, is an international student engineering competition founded in 2000. Teams of three to six secondary school students design and manufacture a miniature Formula 1 car using CAD software and CNC manufacturing tools, powered by CO2 cartridges to race along a 20-metre track at speeds up to 70km/h. Teams are judged not only on car performance but also on a marketing portfolio, sponsorship plan, brand identity, verbal presentations, and a pit booth display. Regional and national winners progress to the annual World Finals.

Who won the 2026 STEM Racing World Finals, and where was it held?

The 2026 STEM Racing World Finals were held in Singapore at Resorts World Sentosa during the week of the Singapore Formula 1 Grand Prix. Saudi Arabia’s Team Lynx Racing claimed the overall championship title, receiving the trophy on the F1 grand prix podium. German team Spectrum finished in third place. The 2026 edition was the competition’s largest to date, featuring 91 teams from 36 countries.

Has STEM Racing helped students get jobs in Formula 1?

Yes. Several STEM Racing alumni have gone on to build careers at F1 teams. Notable examples include Greece’s Kyriakos Theofanidis, who won in 2016 and now works as a mechanical engineer at Red Bull Ford Powertrains; Australia’s James Mitchell, who competed in 2023 and was subsequently recruited by Aston Martin; Britain’s Laurence Vines, now a structural design engineer at Williams; and Amy Martin, a financial controller at Mercedes High Performance Powertrains. McLaren Racing Director Randy Singh has publicly endorsed the competition as a valuable talent development pipeline for the sport.