The Shell Eco-Marathon Drivers’ World Championship hopes to bring the best urban-concept teams together. It wants them to take part in an exciting race to recognize the world’s most energy-efficient driver. Remarkably, a team of Indonesian students from Bandung, West Java scooped the 2016 prize. Their gasoline was batteries and they got to drive a Formula 1 Ferrari.
A Week Spent with Ferrari Engineers
Their reward was a week just spent with Ferrari top engineers in Italy, where they got to tweak their invention, and drive it, and a F1 Ferrari on the Fiorano F1 development circuit. Their team spirit particularly impressed the Italians. “In Formula 1 everybody knows who the driver is. But with this team the spirit is so amazing because everybody is equally important,” they explain.
https://youtu.be/2NW9ZKCoaH0
The Indonesian Students’ Real Motive
Bandung is Indonesia’s second-largest metropole with over eight million inhabitants. Being in a bowl among mountains means it suffocates in smog until the rainy season comes. Studies using students revealed up to ten times the tolerable level of lead in their bodies. “We wanted to help solve the problem,” they explain. And they sure did, we say.
More than Just the Excitement of Ferrari
We can learn much from the achievements of eight impoverished students from Indonesia. They did not let their situation hold them back. First, they studied hard at school and this got them to university on scholarships. Then they seized the Shell Eco-Marathon opportunity when it presented. Finally they persisted even though they failed to win on three occasions.
Back in Indonesia, they explain they have no spare time after studying. “We have to do lots of extra hard work when you’re part of the Bumi Siliwangi Team,” they say but they clearly don’t begrudge it. We think this is a great success story. It has a message for everyone, everywhere, especially for young people who expect their world to come to them.
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Energy Efficiency: Electric Cars
Preview Image: Fiorano Circuit
