Formula Student

Team Bath Racing's 2015 car on track

Formula Student is a student engineering competition held annually in the UK. Student teams from around the world design, build, test, and race a small-scale formula style racing car. The cars are judged on a number of criteria as listed below. It is run by the Institution of Mechanical Engineers and uses the same rules as the original Formula SAE with supplementary regulations.

The 2015 Formula Student event was held at Silverstone Circuit between the 9 and 12 July 2015.^[1]

The current holder of the overall trophy is TU Delft and the top team from the UK is Team Bath Racing from the University of Bath

In 2014 Beth Georgiou took over as Formula Student Project Leader and Tasneem Rahman took over as Formula Student Executive Assistant. Ambassadors of Formula Student include David Brabham, Paddy Lowe, Willem Toet, Leena Gade, Dallas Campbell, Mike Gascoyne, and James Allison.

Class definitions

There are two entry classes in Formula Student, designed to allow progressive learning.

Class 1

Is the main event, where teams compete with the cars they have designed and built. Teams are judged across 6 categories and must pass a rigorous inspection by judges before being allowed to compete for the dynamic events. There are usually 100-120 teams in this class.

Class 2

This is a concept class for teams who only have a project and plan for a Class 1 car. It can include any parts or work that has been completed in the project so far but this is not necessary. Teams are judged on business presentation, cost and design. Schools can enter both Class 1 and Class 2 cars, allowing Class 2 to be used for inexperienced students to practise their development in advance of a full Class 1 entry.

Class 1A (pre-2012)

The 13th car of DUT Racing, the Formula Student team from the Delft University of Technology

This was an alternative fueled class with the emphasis placed upon the environmental impact of racing. A car from the previous year's Class 1 entry could be re-entered and re-engineered allowing the students to concentrate on the low carbon aspect of the competition without having to redesign a new chassis and ancillaries. Cars in Class 1A were judged in the same events alongside Class 1 however the cost category was replaced by one for sustainability and the endurance event had a greater emphasis placed upon measured emissions. Class 1A cars were scored and ranked independently of Class 1. Since 2012, both Petroleum and Alternative fueled cars have competed for places in the same rankings.

Class 2A (pre-2012)

This was a concept class for teams who only had a project and plan for a Class 1A car. It could include any physical parts or work that had been completed for the project so far, but was not essential. Teams were judged on business presentation, cost and design. Schools could enter both Class 1A and Class 2A teams, with Class 2A allowing inexperienced students to gain competition experience in preparation for a full Class 1A entry.

Judging

The cars are judged by industry specialists on the following criteria:

Static Events

Engineering Design (150 points)
Cost & Sustainability Analysis (100 points)
Business Presentation (75 points)
Technical Inspection (comprising 6 tests): Safety, Chassis, Noise, Tilt, Brake, and Tech (no points)

Dynamic Events

Skidpad (Figure of 8) (50 points)
1 km Autocross/Sprint (150 points)
75m acceleration (75 points)
22 km endurance (300 points) and fuel economy (100 points)

The winner of the event is the team with the highest number of points out of a maximum of 1000.^[2]

Venues

The first event was held at the Motor Industry Research Association (MIRA) proving ground in 1998. Following that, the event was held for three years at the NEC Birmingham between 1999 and 2001. The event was then held on the Go-Kart track at Bruntingthorpe Aerodrome between 2002 and 2006, before moving to Silverstone Circuit in 2007 where the competition remains until this day. The dynamic events have taken place on Luffield and Brooklands corners in the past but 2012 saw Copse corner and the National Circuit pit straight being used.

Winners

Year	Location	Class 1	Best UK team	Class 1-200	Class 3	Class 1a
1998	MIRA	UT Arlington	University of Birmingham	n/a	n/a	n/a
1999	NEC Birmingham	Rochester IT	Leeds University	n/a	University of Maribor	n/a
2000	NEC Birmingham	CSU Pomona	University of Hertfordshire	n/a	University of Huddersfield	n/a
2001	NEC Birmingham	Georgia Tech	Leeds University	University of Birmingham	University of Bath	n/a
2002	Bruntingthorpe	Georgia Tech	Brunel University	University of Hertfordshire	University of Florence	n/a
2003	Bruntingthorpe	University of Toronto	Oxford Brookes University	Helsinki Polytechnic Stadia	Swansea University	n/a
2004	Bruntingthorpe	RMIT University	Oxford Brookes University	UAS Stralsund	University of Bath	n/a
2005	Bruntingthorpe	University of Toronto	University of Hertfordshire	Swansea University	University of Bath	n/a
2006	Bruntingthorpe	University of Toronto	Oxford Brookes University	University of Hertfordshire	Instituto Superior Técnico	n/a
2007	Silverstone	RMIT University	University of Bath	University of Hertfordshire	University of Hertfordshire	n/a
2008	Silverstone	University of Stuttgart	University of Bath	University of Hertfordshire	TU Eindhoven	University of Hertfordshire
2009	Silverstone	University of Stuttgart	University of Bath	TU Munich	Isfahan UT	University of Hertfordshire
2010	Silverstone	TU Munich	University of Hertfordshire	n/a	Instituto Superior Técnico	ETH Zurich
Year	Location	Class 1	Best UK team	Class 1a	Class 2	Class 2a
2011	Silverstone	University of Stuttgart	University of Hertfordshire	TU Delft	University of Bath	University of Warwick
Year	Location	Class 1	Best UK team	Dynamic Events Winner	Endurance Event Winner	Static Events Winner	Class 2
2012	Silverstone	Chalmers UT	Oxford Brookes University	TU Munich	Chalmers UT	Monash University	Instituto Superior Técnico
2013	Silverstone	ETH Zurich	University of Huddersfield	ETH Zurich	ETH Zurich	ETH Zurich	Imperial College London
2014	Silverstone	TU Delft	Oxford Brookes University	TU Delft	University of Stuttgart	University of Stuttgart	TU Eindhoven
2015	Silverstone	TU Delft	University of Bath	TU Delft	University of Bath	University of Stuttgart	University of Bath