They're racing cars at 80 km/h. Most of them aren't old enough to drive

Grade 10 Queechy High School students from Zenity F1 will fly to Adelaide in March to showcase their miniature Formula One car alongside 43 other teams.

The models are raced on a 20-metre track and can reach speeds exceeding 80 kilometres an hour.

A finish time of more than a second is considered slow.

Like a professional racing team, Zenity's members represent distinct departments.

Head engineer Alex Cunningham is responsible for the car's development and leads manufacturing, engineering, and aerodynamics research.

The 16-year-old is in his fifth year with the F1 in Schools program, having started in grade six by creating a car and a poster.

Now, he's using milling machines and 3D printers to build the formula car while tracking its streamlining with fluid dynamics software.

Team manager Eve Bowden, 15, assists with development on and off the track.

"I keep us on track timeline-wise and help around with everything," she said.

"We had to build this team from scratch. This is the first time any of us have gone to nationals, so we don't really know what we're heading into."

Racing is just one part of the competition, as the team will also be judged on their trade display, engineering capabilities and verbal presentations.

Zenity's branding plays a part, too, falling largely to graphic designer Caitlin Watts, 15, who's responsible for the team's logo and shirts.

The team has put in dozens of hours of work to qualify, which Ms Watts said was done almost exclusively outside of class.

"We enter through the school but this is entirely independent, we take our own time to do this," she said.

Jack Boyes heads off the team as finance manager, overseeing the budget and getting sponsors on board.

The 15-year-old said the competition had "a big financial aspect" and helped set up careers for its teenage participants.

"If you're looking for sponsorship and fundraising, then you're also doing industry collaboration," he said.

"You're going to local businesses and seeing what they do and finding out how to get your foot in the door in these different industries."

The nationals will take place in Adelaide between the March 10 and 15, with the top competitors to qualify for the worlds later this year.

Mr Cunningham said the team was putting in extra hours from home "at every opportunity" as the event draws close.

While Zenity will be aiming to achieve their best, it's not the only focus.

"Just meeting all the other teams from around Australia, people who also enjoy STEM, that's exciting too," Ms Watts said.