The moment the clocks hit 2012, we all didn’t know what would expect us during the next 365 days. Laurenz and Till already had the idea of the F1 in Schools project in their heads, aswell as the upcoming Nationals, but it still needed the step of Cara, Dalia, and Chris joining the team to finally get “Safire Racing” started. A huge journey began: spending hours and more hours on the car design, the portfolio, the presentation, and everything else that was needed to successfully compete in the UAE Nationals 2012. We didn’t know what to expect, as the days got closer and closer to the upcoming Nationals in May.
An amazing experience, and an honor for the team, was to be able to meet Nico Rosberg just after him winning the China Grand Prix. On his way to Bahrain, he had a quick stop in Dubai, and attended a Daimler Middle East press conference – and guess who was there: Safire Racing! It was great to have a quick chat with him, and he did seem very interested in our car and the F1 in Schools competition itself.
And there it was … The date for which we worked so hard for, as with no other outer-school-activity. The UAE Nationals took place on May 6 at the Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi, and we achieved an amazing success that not one of us, nor our supporters would have even thought of: we won three category prizes! That’s more than any other participating team. The prizes included the Best Reaction Time, the Best Engineered Car, and the Best Rookie Team. And that wasn’t even it … The first overall place and therefore being the senior national champions went to: Safire Racing! Yes, we achieved first place and got the tickets to represent the United Arab Emirates at the World Finals, which would eventually be announced to be right where we already were: Abu Dhabi!
So there we were … Official UAE National Champions 2012 and needing to sort things out for the World Finals. Sure, why not … But it turned out to be much harder work than we would have expected. We needed additional sponsors and partners, and there were weeks where we would just spend our time sitting at round tables with potential sponsors, introducing us, the project, and F1 in Schools over and over again. But eventually, things worked out well, and we were in full preparations for the World Finals. We made everyone crazy about it – Even our school was talking about it all the time (and they were probably happy when it was over so we could return our full concentration to lessons … 🙂 ).
Once again: there it was, the day of the beginning of the World Finals 2012 in Abu Dhabi – A whole week was waiting for us and 32 other teams from around the whole world, all having the same goal. There is actually so much to tell from this one single week, but let’s keep it short. It was an intense experience taking part in such a fun, but also serious competition. We met so many new people, went through emotional highs and lows, and never wanted it all to end. But it eventually did, and we even achieved something great! Safire Racing won the prize for the Best Verbal Presentation. A prize to be very proud of, especially since we’re from a German school.
Taking part in the F1 Grand Prix in Abu Dhabi the weekend after the Worlds was just another amazing end to it all – We would like to thank everybody who contributed to this amazing experience, and this amazing year: our sponsors and partners, and all the amazing new friends we have made around the world.
So what’s coming 2013? Well, to keep it short: we’ll see each other at the UAE Nationals 2013.
Best wishes for a happy new year,
the whole Safire Racing Team!
