NCME students support F1 racing car at popular Silverstone race meeting

Students from the University of Bolton’s National Centre for Motorsport Engineering (NCME) had the chance to support a historic F1 car at Silverstone classic race meeting.

Students worked to build a new front left wing and suspension components in order to repair the accident damage to veteran racing driver Paul Tattersall’s historic F1 car from his recent Monaco race.

All the components used were custom built in the NCME workshop, as none are available to buy ‘off the shelf’.

The car was then set up by students in preparation for the Silverstone event which was held at the August bank holiday weekend, incorporating some new settings that the machine had never run on before.

Students were able to use the qualifying session as a test to gain data and improve performance through the two races, as well as valuable experience in operating and running a thoroughbred race car.

That data gained helped to improve the car’s lap times around Silverstone in the second race on Sunday, ultimately returning his fastest ever lap time for the car and driver. Paul finished 17th in the first race and moved up to 13th in race two.

The car has now been back at the University of Bolton and made ready for its next race at Spa-Francorchamps, Belgium, this weekend (October 1-2) with the students again supporting Paul.

Paul said: “The team did a wonderful job of looking after the car and ensured it was performing to its best and encouraged me and helped me go that little bit quicker.

“It was an excellent weekend and the opportunity to work together as an effective team and develop the key factors of team spirit and mutual support.”