The Formula for Personal Growth

When you think of Formula 1 (F1) racing and its fanbase, you might not imagine much overlap with the Sacred Heart student demographic. The sport has gained popularity in Japan over the past ten years, when Honda re-entered the competition as a supplier, providing hybrid engines to a variety of teams since 2015. Honda is also the owner and operator of Suzuka Circuit in Mie Prefecture, one of the major venues for F1 racing. But yet, reaching a younger, female audience remained elusive—a fact that two Sacred Heart high school students set out to change through the Honda Mobilityland Youth Innovation Awards 2026.

In March 2026, we spoke to siblings Altair and Sophie Lee, a current senior and freshman respectively, to learn more about their relationship with Youth Innovation Awards, how they originally got involved in F1, and what they have learned from the experience. 

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How did you get involved with the Mobility Land Youth Innovation Awards? 

Altair: So, it's kind of a long story, but this competition is actually an idea that I had.

In other words, you’re the founder?

Altair: That’s right. Our dad is an entrepreneur, and one of his business partners was Honda Mobilityland. And so, we had been hearing a little bit about their work and how F1 really has a huge lack of women and young people interested in the events. Hearing about that gave me the idea to hold a student competition. So, yes, this is a competition that I started, and that I have been promoting. It's going to end quite soon, actually, with the Grand Prix in March. 

What did that process look like? 

Altair: Since Honda is a Japanese company, it's quite difficult to pitch new ideas, but we were exceedingly fortunate to be able to find the right people at Honda who were open to trying new things. I ended up doing a lot of direct pitches to the people at Honda, like just telling them about the idea, and eventually they were like, okay, it sounds like it's going to not cost us any money, so we'll try it. 

Can you explain what the challenge is? 

Altair: The core of the idea is that F1 is a space that's usually associated with a certain type of audience. But the audience of the sport is growing older, and we want to encourage new fans and different kinds of people to be involved. So, the idea with our competition is that we're going to take like anyone's ideas—any kind of idea to improve F1—and actually integrate it into what they do at Honda Mobilityland.

To accomplish that, we split the competition into two tracks: sustainability and fan engagement. First, we wanted some of the students to focus on how we can make F1 more sustainable overall with how fans travel. So, it's called the fan travel challenge. Secondly, for fan engagement, it's more about connecting to new audiences. So, that could be like younger people like Gen Z, or it could also be like more women, more girls, or people also in other countries. Honda Mobilityland is the company that does F1 in Japan, and so we want to encourage a wider audience to engage with F1 in Japan.

The basic idea of the competition is that for either of those two categories, students are challenged to think of any method that they could use to improve F1 in those categories. It doesn't have to be technical at all, it can be an idea centered around their own interests. Like, for example, thinking, “oh, if we did this, maybe more people would want to come see some specific part of the track.” Something like that. So, it's just like trying to broaden the audience of F1 in those two areas.

To enter, students form a team and apply online, and then join a virtual orientation workshop. Then they submit a video talking about their proposal, and we create a shortlist. Then we choose the winners. That’s where we’re at right now. 

One problem that we encountered early on was to spread the word to different schools. We needed students at each of the specific schools to be more active in reminding their community about the events and such, and so we came up with an Ambassador Programme. So now, we have students doing that at other schools and universities, and Sophie is the Ambassador for our school.

Can you tell us a bit more about the online orientation? 

Altair: Before the competition, as sort of a perk for taking part, what we provided for students was the opportunity to hear talks about design and sustainability and engagement from different international academics or like professionals, which was a really big part of it. Like a workshop before students had to submit their ideas. 

Sophie: It was basically this big online conference with all the different teams. The experts spoke about things like how we could be better leaders or how we could improve sustainability in general. And then we use that to help build our projects.

How many teams are competing?

Altair: I think we had about 40 teams submit videos. And each team has about three to five people. So that ended up being a lot of people who entered the competition.

Are you on the team?

Altair: No, since I’m running the competition, I participate in the judging. So basically I take the videos that are submitted and share them to the judges. And then I watch them review and stuff like that. 

So you manage the whole competition, essentially? 

Altair: Yeah. I basically do most of the work that has to go on in the background. Obviously, we have our team at Honda, who gives us the permission to do it. And so our team leader is the General Manager of Suzuka Circuit. And they're all Japanese, like Japanese entrepreneurs, but they make up a really progressive group in Honda as a company. So it's cool to get to work with them.

We noticed that one of the shortlist teams was called “ISSH”.

Sophie: Actually, two shortlist teams are from ISSH! The team that I'm in with my friends, Vankophie, as well as another group who I got interested in the competition, as an Ambassador.

Can you tell me about your entry? 

Sophie: Well, we decided to do the fan engagement track. The idea that we proposed was to host a social media ice bucket challenge. Within the challenge, those participating would post to social media to say which F1 driver they supported the most and write the corresponding hashtag for their favorite racer. Once the challenge was completed, the driver with the most hashtags would participate in the ice bucket challenge in front of a live audience at the final Grand Prix.

Altair: Since we have so many teams, with high schoolers and also with university students, the range of topics and content is really quite large.

Sophie works with teammates Vania and Kay on their entry video for the Fan Engagement Track
 

And what do you do as an Ambassador, on top of your challenge entry?

Sophie: As an ambassador, my main job was to promote the event within the school. This meant presenting at assemblies and spreading awareness about the competition through word of mouth. Of course, to present at assemblies, we first had to get permission from Ms. Young! Once students from our school signed up to compete, I would also remind them about upcoming meetings and share any important updates regarding the competition.

So what's the next step in the challenge? You've gotten down to finalists in each category. 

Altair: We’ve been judging the finalists and narrowing it down to the winners, of which there will be three. We’ve actually already completed that step, but we have yet to release it to the public, it’s just confirmed internally. And after we release that information, the winners are going to go to Suzuka Circuit to watch the Grand Prix at the end of this month. So everyone's going to come together and it's going to be really cool. We're going to be on site and get to do a lot of exclusive things there. 

So that finishes out the challenge for the year? What next?

Altair: One thing that we are hoping to continue is, like, the implementation of the ideas that we have right now. The solutions of the winners, that is. They're going to stay in touch with Honda and we'll be willing to see what they can use out of their solutions. 

In a way, that’s a benefit of winning—besides going to the event—winners get to make those connections at Honda and to continue working on their projects with them?

Altair:  Yeah, and as well as with the, like, networks of professionals and professors that we had. That’s a perk for all the participants. They get to get connected with experts in the industry.

You had the connection to Honda Mobilityland, but were you interested in F1 before this? 

Altair: I actually knew almost nothing about F1 before, which is why it was really cool, because I got to get interested in F1 and kind of become a fan through the challenge. And actually, the funny thing is, I think that's kind of what the Honda Mobilityland people are like too, because I asked my team members, “Are you really into F1?” and they're like, “no, it's my job.” I think that's just how it goes sometimes. But through learning about it, we were both more interested. 

Sophie: I heard a lot about F1 from my friends, so I kind of knew some about it, but I wasn't a major fan. But I took the chance to become an Ambassador and compete in the challenge, so we got to learn a lot more.

So what would you each say was your biggest takeaway from this experience?

Sophie: I think for me, I never went to the principals or anyone with new ideas, so this was the first time I ever pitched something to them. That was really scary. But it was mainly just talking to Ms. Young and then talking to all these other teachers and trying to figure out how to best get students to get involved. It was a new experience. 

Altair: One thing I’m proud of was taking on responsibility communicating with Japanese industry people—I speak Japanese, but I'm quite awful at writing it, and even in English, I'm not used to how they speak in an office! So it was really rewarding to get a good response. 

Another big thing I took away is that every one of the speakers and the people involved are people I just had to like cold reach out to. Which is a lot of work, but it really taught me the power of networking, like, I'm part of the school community and I don't have a huge professional reach, but just from making a LinkedIn profile and messaging people randomly, I can get people involved. Sr. Wachter and Ms. Young helped me publish a piece in the ISSH Alumni Newsletter, which helped me connect to alumni from our school at UC Irvine, so we had some competitors from there—again, the power of the ISSH network.

And overall, my key takeaway was that people are really generous in helping out and students and young people who just want to share their ideas. Even without any monetary incentive, a lot of industry professionals, entrepreneurs, and professors from different universities like Stanford, Berkeley, and Seoul National University connected with us and were willing to share their information, were willing to make presentations for students and to judge the entries. I learned that people wanted to join because they wanted to be part of something that's new and exciting and that's helping students. And so it made me feel really good about, like, about people in general because they're really willing to help.

Were there any experiences during your time at Sacred Heart that inspired you to take this on? 

Altair: Yeah, I think definitely one of the things that inspired me to create the competition was that people at ISSH are always trying to do new things. There's always different challenges going on in our community. So I think the fact that I’ve grown up seeing that ISSH students are really eager to share their own ideas and get creative made me certain that this kind of competition has a market. And I'm on the student council as well. So I think maybe having had that leadership experience helped me with the talking side, like getting new students interested in the competition and presenting in front of them. 

You’re on the robotics team, right, Altair? Do you feel like it was at all related to your interest in robotics?

Altair: Yeah, I would say it's related to robotics. I'm really into engineering. And so that mindset of just making something new out of a lot of disparate parts or ideas is something that we practice a lot in robotics. So in that sense, I do have a technical background that's related to engineering. 

But at the same time, working as a team for robotics competitions, it isn't always the most technical ideas that get you the farthest.  It's just, like, a student who kind of looks at it and randomly thinks, “oh, maybe this is a good idea.” That often ends up being really impactful to our results. And so I think we wanted to branch out a little bit from the engineering side with this competition.

Altair, you're a senior this year. What's next for you? 

Altair: I’ll be headed to the Georgia Institute of Technology for mechanical engineering this fall! I want to spend as much time as I can making things.

F1 and student council are not Altair’s only interests; here Altair shows off a recent GSA initiative they worked on through the High School Well-being Council
 

Sophie, it’s pretty impressive that you took on all this responsibility as a freshman. After this, do you think that it's something you want to try again? 

Sophie: Yes! I've never done any behind-the-scenes stuff before, and it would be really cool to continue—I think I can learn more about that sort of project, it could help me in the future.  And I’m inspired to try to build up more ideas, because I saw how even if you have a small idea, as long as you talk to a bunch of people, you can make it happen. 

Also, I did the fan engagement track. Social media stuff really interests me, and I got even more interested from doing this challenge. So I want to learn more about using social media to accomplish things in the future. 

Last question. What’s the one piece of advice you would want to give to those following in your footsteps?

Altair: If you have an idea, even if it sounds insignificant or seems super impossible, you should reach out to a few people and explain your idea. Especially people in the community, like the principals or your teachers. You're likely to find some people who will support you, at ISSH or in your network. And that support will take your idea from being just an idea to something you'll actually end up doing. 

Sophie: Also, just try new things. If there’s an opportunity to participate in something, even if you might not like it, you should still try it. Because a lot of my friends didn't know anything about F1, and they didn't think that they would be able to do well in the challenge. But they ended up going to the finals and they enjoyed coming up with these new ideas and filming the videos.

I feel like this really ties into our school’s idea of “courage and confidence”. Because from start to finish, you were trying something that you've never done before, and you had to face the potential of being ignored or told your ideas didn't make sense.

Altair: Absolutely. I totally agree. We were able to get this far because we took the risk and gave it a try. And I think something that we're both finding a lot recently is that, like, the place of best growth is when you're, like, a little bit uncomfortable and you're kind of not sure what to do. So, yeah, I think that's similar to what you’ve just said. People should just put themselves out there and try. 
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We caught up with Sophie again in April to hear about the finalists attending the Suzuka Grand Prix. She shared the following comment with us:

Winners of the Challenge at Suzuka Circuit in March 2026
 

Sophie: On March 29th, I was thrilled to be able to attend the Suzuka Grand Prix. Going into the event, I had very little knowledge of F1, which made me think that watching the race would be boring. Yet being in the special box area created for the Mobilityland Challenge and seeing the clear view of the race course, I was immediately excited for the race to start. While watching the race from the balcony and listening to the MC narrations on the radio, the 53 laps flew by. As each lap passed, I grew more familiar with the racers and the rules. Usually, people believe that events like these are for fans who are already familiar with F1. Yet, through my experience, I realized that attending the event helped spark my interest in F1. Not only that, but throughout the day, I got to meet the other contestants of the competition. Despite being from different countries and being different ages, we were able to share our interests and experiences. Overall, it was a great day filled with fun, good food, and community.

We can’t wait to see what Altair and Sophie tackle next, with courage and confidence.