Mumbai Falcons Racing Limited (MFRL), in association with Formula 1®, has begun the nationwide rollout of its Flagship Partner School Programme in Indian schools. The Bishop's School, Pune, hosted the city's first Official F1® Sim Racing India Open School Time Trials from 26th to 29th June, becoming the first school in the country to run the programme.
The initiative combines simulator training with competitive sim racing through professional Formula 1® simulators. It aims to teach students the technical and strategic basics of motorsport and to introduce career options in race engineering, vehicle dynamics, data analytics and simulation engineering.
Time Trials in Pune
The Time Trials drew 881 students over three rounds, with 528 in the Junior category and 353 in the Senior
category. The Top 100 leaderboard included 52 Junior and 48 Senior drivers. Pune's long link with the automotive and engineering sectors made it the first venue for the rollout.
| Senior fastest lap | Rayyan Bakshi - 1:21.811 |
| Junior fastest lap | Armaan Khinvasara - 1:23.347 |
| Junior laps under 1:30.000 | 40 |
| Top 3 Senior gap | 0.056 seconds |
| Top 3 Junior gap | 0.098 seconds |
The leading performers can now move into the Official F1® Sim Racing India Open talent pathway, beginning with the zonal levels. The overall results will also be used to benchmark student performance as the programme expands to more schools across the country.
Ameet Gadhoke, Managing Director, Mumbai Falcons Racing Limited, said: "At Mumbai Falcons we are committed to building a sustainable motorsport ecosystem in India by creating pathways from grassroots karting to international single-seater racing, while nurturing the talent, skills and innovation that underpin the sport. Motorsport is about much more than racing drivers. It creates opportunities across engineering, technology, analytics and many other disciplines. Through this programme, we want students to discover the breadth of this ecosystem early, and there is no better place to begin than Pune, a city with a rich automotive and engineering legacy. "
Siddharth Bhanushali, a student at The Bishop's School and an aspiring racing driver, said: "Usually, schools in India don't really focus on motorsport. To see my school actually treating motorsport like any other sport is really exciting. The best part about this setup is that they are not using regular steering wheels. They're using actual Formula 1® style steering wheels, which makes the experience feel much more authentic and gives you a completely different feeling. "
The Bishop's School will continue as India's first Flagship Partner School under the Official F1® Sim Racing India Open Programme, with simulator training, structured competition and talent identification. The next round of Time Trials will be held at Vishwashanti Gurukul World School (IB), Pune, from 1st to 5th July 2026.
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