in 2012 there was an effort made to get grade school girls into F1, and that seems to have ended with that, as Google shows nothing the next year, or since

F1 Team Shift, a student-based team that will be representing the United States in the F1 in Schools World Championship this month in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.

F1 Team Shift members Kelly Fitzgerald, Anna Awald, Claire McCoy and Sabine Saldanha designed and built a CO2-powered, balsa-wood model of a Formula One racecar that will compete in a 65-foot track against student teams from 34 countries.

The girls first formed a team in 2010 when they were students at East Cobb Middle School.

F1 in Schools is the largest, and most successful, educational initiative in the world, with 40 countries operating the programme, from Kenya to Kuwait, Kazakhstan to Vietnam and many more.

The power of Formula 1 and the challenge of designing, building, testing, and racing a miniature F1 car of the future has reached over 20 million students, with over one million involved each year from over 20,000 schools.


Team Shift's accomplishments in Abu Dhabi in November include:

Fourth fastest car in the world Nominated for Best Portfolio and FIA Women in Motorsports Award Placed 8th overall (33 teams from 27 countries) Won Best Sportsmanship Award


It was the first time a winning team was comprised entirely of girls. And Team Shift, as Kelly Fitzgerald, Anna Awald, Claire McCoy and Sabine Saldanha are known, completed the project in a time-honored fashion: after school, in a garage. For the 2011 competition, 40 percent of competitors were female, according to the program.

Some schools build the engineering program into their curricula, and students receive significant support. The members of Team Shift were not among them. “We had no school help,” Ms. Fitzgerald, the team manager, said in a telephone interview. “We did all of it outside of the classroom, in our homes and in our former teacher’s garage.”

Not that they were completely alone in the endeavor. When Team Shift entered the competition in 2011, they contacted the headquarters of Porsche Cars North America, in nearby Atlanta. After the students explained the nature of the project, in which they would use 3-D modeling software to design their racer, Porsche was on board.

https://patch.com/georgia/eastcobb/east-cobb-students-ready-for-f1-finals
https://www.inap.com/blog/f1-in-schools-world-championships-go-team-shift-go-usa/
https://news.kennesaw.edu/stories/2012/Fred-Stillwell-KSU-91-guides-F1-in-Schools-Team-to-strong-finish-in-Abu-Dhabi.php