It’s been quite a while  (two weeks to be exact) since I got back from Malaysia with
Team Zealous. Things didn’t go too well in Malaysia for our team after all. We went to Malaysia
with a dream and mission – a dream to hold the Bernie Ecclestone trophy in our hands and to
bring it home. Our dream didn’t exactly come true, but many other dreams were realized.

The competition days (the real thing we came for) were well organized and the experience of
a lifetime. We received a big shock on the night before the competition, when we discovered
that our car did not comply with one regulation, disqualifying us from the Overall Winner,
Fastest Car and Best Engineered Car awards. It was a big spirit killer, but we decided that we
would just do our best otherwise. In the end, we finished 14th out of the 25 teams that
competed. The rest of the visit made it worthwhile, though.

Kuala Lumpur and Malaysia in itself was an amazing experience. We were exposed to some
awesome stuff. Stuff like:

• KLIA (Kuala Lumpur International Airport)

One word: breathtaking. The airport was a showcase of modern technology,
but you also felt surrounded by nature the whole time, as there were little
‘forests’ everywhere, surrounded by glass. The weirdest thing for me was that
when we walked out of the plane, we immediately got onto a monorail train to
the main terminal, received our bags and walked out. No passport control or
anything! We were welcomed by representatives of F1 in Schools who
accompanied us through everything – very friendly indeed.

• Sunway Resort and Theme Park

This is the resort where the competition was held and where we stayed. Apart
from the tons of hotels, the whole resort is built around a theme park with,
among other things, the biggest synthetic beach in the world. We had free
access to nearly the whole resort and had tons of fun in the theme park.

• Petronas Twin Towers

We were taken to the city centre by means of a procession of eight busses,
lead by a police escort (one of the parts where we really felt like celebrities).
The towers and surrounding parks were, to say the least, breathtaking. We
visited the sky bridge, located on the 41st floor, and had a view over the
whole of Kuala Lumpur.

• International media

Throughout the competition days, the media was swarming around and
cameras were everywhere. It was a bit intimidating at first, but after the first
hour, we got used to it.

• Very interesting people

It was very interesting and fun to mingle with the other teams’ members.
Because we all stayed in the same hotel, we had the opportunity to have
some late night outings to Starbucks and some other coffee shops in the
shopping centre connected to the hotel. The other teams’ members were very
friendly and we had a great time having interesting conversations about our
countries.

• China Town and Bargaining

Man! Did we have a lot of fun bargaining - definitely one of the most
interesting things we encountered. Kuala Lumpur’s China Town in itself was
also amazing – to have heard so much about China Town and then to be
able to experience it yourself... I could write a whole book on our experiences
there.

• Interesting Food

During the competition days, we attended a few lunches and dinners, where
we had the opportunity to experience some real eastern dishes. My personal
favourites were the rice and curry chicken, although I have to admit that I was
too scared to try a few of the other dishes.

• Eastern Culture(s)

As this was my first visit to the Orient, it was particularly interesting to get to
know the cultures better. Malaysia is a diverse country in terms of cultures,
and we were lucky enough to experience quite a few of them. On the last
competition night, we attended a cultural evening, where various dance groups
and orchestras performed both traditional and contemporary music
and dances. At the end of the evening, we even had a dance on an Eastern
tune, which was also fun and funny.

• Malaysian Grand Prix at Sepang F1 Circuit

Not one of us has previously attended a real Grand Prix, except Mr. Fourie,
who went to the Australian Grand Prix last year with the TanzaKnights – last
year’s national champions. I’ve only ever seen Grand Prix on TV. In the days
of Michael Schumacher, I was a Ferrari fan and watched nearly all the races.
After that, however, I lost track of F1 and the drivers. On visiting Sepang and
watching the Qualifiers for the race and then the official Grand Prix, we didn’t
know what to expect. Our curiosity was rewarded and we got an excellent
performance, from the roaring of engines to a crash right in front of us. We
also had to wear earplugs, which made the noise of the cars barely bearable.
The Grand Prix did remind me a bit of watching some test cricket matches –
the first and the last part is the most interesting.

The whole F1 in Schools experience, especially the World Championship in Malaysia, has
tought me a lot - knowledge and emotions that I would otherwise only have learned and
experienced a lot later in life. There have been times during this competition that I have felt
that I was on top of the world. Then there were times when I felt the world was on top of me.
Nevertheless, everything always had a positive side, and I always learned something.

In the future, I would definitely want to see more teams compete in this challenge, especially
from South Africa and its schools. There is so much to gain from this competition. It would be
great if the WCED or the national Department of Education could follow the Malaysian
Department of Education’s decision to integrate F1 in Schools into the national curriculum. I
don’t think the challenge is known of widely enough in South Africa. If these limitations can be
overcome, then who knows – the next world champions might come from South Africa.
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For those interested, I’ve published our team’s results in the ‘Downloads’ section on my website. You can also find the
cumulative score sheet for all the participating teams there.