Team INFERNO
Captain: Michael Oates
Captains Robots: Eruption & Ignition
Team Inferno consisted of a father-and-son team of Michael and Adrian Oates. Michael Oates was the team captain throughout all of Eruption's appearances, and held the more prominent speaking role on television. A highly accomplished driver heading into the series, Michael Oates was the driver of Eruption in all of its battles, and is also credited with designing the robot. Michael Oates was also involved with building the robot, while Adrian Oates was the lead builder of the machine, creating it from scratch in 2012 and lead the repairs process during Eruption's televised appearances. Michael Oates was aged 17 in Series 8 and was still a schoolboy at the time, but as the reboot progressed, Michael Oates (aged 18 in Series 10) progressed to study Engineering at Durham University, while 52-year old Adrian Oates was a full-time electronics engineer at a research laboratory.