Teenagers from two schools tried their hand at designing a racing car.

Year 10 pupils from Oriel School in Crawley and Seaford Head took inspiration from a fully-functioning racing car designed and built from scratch by engineering students at the University of Sussex.

The car that inspired them was raced at Silverstone in July as part of the international Formula Student competition.

After seeing the car, the youngsters were set a series of tasks to give them a glimpse of the life of a modern engineer, such as using Computer Aided Design (CAD) software and creating electrical circuit boards.

The Design a Racing Car Day at the university was organised by current engineering students at the university who wanted to do something to help increase the diversity of people studying engineering degrees.

For example, they prioritised schools who could bring a high percentage of girls. This is an important point because, of the 2.56 million job openings in engineering companies between 2012 and 2022, half are forecast to be filled by women.

Chris Mason from the University’s Widening Participation team said: “We are delighted to continue our fruitful partnership with the University’s Formula Student team.

“The team put together an engaging and exciting day for our Year 10s, giving them an insight into mechanical and electrical engineering.”