A team of students from Durham Johnston School celebrated winning the Ferrari North Europe Research and Development Award at this years F1 in Schools National Finals held recently at the Big Bang Young Scientists and Engineers Fair in London.The team, named Blazing Hares, with team members Benjamin Lawson, Jonathon Lawson and Keiron Smith, had won through from the F1 in Schools North East Regional Final and after putting in many hours of hard work to design, build, test and race their scale-model Formula One car of the future, they were rewarded with the R & D Award.Team Manager, Benjamin Lawson said of the teams success:  Its absolutely amazing to win this Ferrari North Europe R & D Award. We won this award because we researched the use of many different materials for our wheels and other components, including Perspex, plastic, balsa and metal, and we then used the best of these for our car. We were also able to shorten the manufacturing time through our research and that helped us to develop our car for the National Finals. Weve had a great time doing F1 in Schools and to take home an Award is the best part of it!!The 2013 F1 in Schools UK Champions were Red Set Racing from Sprowston Community High School and they will be jetting off to the USA for F1 in Schools World Finals in November. They also receive tickets to the 2013 FORMULA 1 BRITISH GRAND PRIX at Silverstone, a Red Bull Racing F1 team factory tour and a TW STEEL Watch for each team member.  The National Champions school, Sprowston Community High School, wins a Denford 3 Axis CNC Router, a prize worth over 10,000.F1 in Schools challenges students to create their own Formula One team which is commissioned to design, construct and race the fastest miniature Formula One Car of the Future; a 21cm long scale model built from a block of balsa wood and powered by a compressed air cylinder. Each team of between three and six students creates a pit display and showcases their work in developing their race car, with a verbal and written presentation for the judges. The teams then race their model car on a specially designed 20 metre test track, with the cars covering the distance in just over one second.Andrew Denford, Founder and Chairman, F1 in Schools summed up the F1 in Schools UK National Finals 2013 saying: After two days of judging and racing for the 30 teams, it all came down to the wire and we crowned our F1 in Schools UK Champions 2013. The judges were given a massive challenge by the outstanding work of these teams, with so much effort, passion, creativity and skill put into producing some of the most innovative designs of F1 in Schools scale-model Formula One cars of the future.  It was also fantastic to see carbon fibre being used for the first time in F1 in Schools. All the teams are winners for reaching the National Finals and for taking on the challenge presented by F1 in Schools. It is great to see them learning so much from the project, not just academically but also in the life skills they acquire in the process of competing and sharing their experience with their peers. We hope that many of them will use the experience in their future careers and benefit from participating in the competition.The F1 in Schools UK National Finals 2013 took place with the support of The Institution of Engineering and Technology, Jaguar, Denford Limited, Silverstone Circuit, Autodesk, Tomorrows Engineers and City University, London.