It was less of a case of "gentlemen start your engines" and more of a case of "students prime your gas tanks" when a team of young South Australians arrived in Singapore recently for the STEM Racing World Finals.
The Fusion Racing Team from Adelaide’s Charles Campbell College qualified for the global challenge after taking out the 2025 Australian Development Class National Championship.
And the team didn’t disappoint on the global stage, finishing a very credible 12th in the world out of 83 teams after missing out on the semi-finals by a heartbreaking 0.002 seconds.
STEM Racing sees the students replicate the world of Formula One by manufacturing miniature cars that are propelled by a CO2 canister down a 20m track at speeds of up to 80km an hour.
However, according to Charles Campbell College STEM and Technology teacher Daniel 
Marotti there’s a lot more to being successful than just going fast.
"There’s the engineering side of the program, where the kids design and manufacture a miniature F1 car," Mr Marotti said.
"And then you have the marketing side of the team, which manages social media accounts, branding and that type of thing.
"And there’s a manager who is in charge of gantt charts and budgeting.
"The students also do verbal presentations, write comprehensive portfolios, approach businesses to get sponsorships and arrange partnerships – it’s a massive project but the kids get heaps out of it. A lot of 'real world' education."
Charles Campbell College’s relatively short involvement in STEM Racing has seen plenty of success, with the school finishing second in the world in 2023.
This year the college’s squad was one of only four Australian teams. They were also the youngest team, the only SA team, and the only public school team.
Mr Marotti said this year’s world championships coincided with the Singapore Grand Prix, opening up some special opportunities for the team.
"We went for a Paddock Tour, saw some of the drivers right before qualifying, so that was pretty amazing," he said.
"We also got to look through the garages. A really good experience you wouldn’t get anywhere else.
"In this group there were several students who had never been overseas before, so it was very exciting."
And there’s plenty more racing to come, with Charles Campbell College hosting the state finals on 29 and 30 November.
The STEM Racing Academy is an essential feature of Charles Campbell College’s unique STEM curriculum pathway which sees guaranteed entry into engineering courses at Flinders University or Adelaide University after Year 12.
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