F1 schools champions from Denbigh to be celebrated at event

An F1 engineering team which excelled at the schools world championships in Texas has been recognised at an event in Cardiff.

Team Tachyon, made up of Denbigh High pupils, won three awards while representing Wales in Austin.

Competitors had to design a miniature F1 car which was propelled down a 20m track, powered by compressed CO2.

Team members described the experience as "incredible" ahead of a celebration at Cardiff Bay.

As part of the process, the team had to give a talk to a board of 70 head teachers despite being "quite shy" - a feat the girls told Good Morning Wales they would not have been able to achieve two years ago.

In the US, the team which consists of Jessica Briody Hughes, Amy Martin, Katie Rowlands and Holly Roberts attended an F1 race at Circuit of the Americas.

Three of them also got to go into the pit of the Manor F1 team.

Team Tachyon were congratulated by First Minister Carwyn Jones, Education Secretary Kirsty Williams and Vale of Clwyd AM, Ann Jones

Though the girls said the industry was "very much male dominated", they said they had discovered there was an increase in women getting into engineering - which helps to promote F1 among younger people.

Amy Martin put the team together after being asked by a teacher and is now one of just nine people in the world to be accepted into the Randstad Williams F1 Engineering Academy.

"I'm just going to try and get through the academy, every year they knock two people out, and then hopefully have a job with Williams," she said.

Education Secretary Kirsty Williams said the whole of Wales should be proud of the girls.

She said: "They are superb role models. I want to see more girls studying science, technology and engineering in our schools. Anyone who meets these girls can't be anything but totally inspired. They are fantastic."