2017 winners Cardiff secured runner up position while University of the Basque Country came third while also picking up plenty of accolades for their well-developed EV.
Now in its 26th year, the Formula Student competition challenges university students from around the world to design, build and race a single seater race car. The season follows the university year, culminating in a finals event at Silverstone comprised of formal presentations of their engineering knowledge together with on-track dynamic events to demonstrate the speed, handling and reliability of their finished vehicles.
Having brought the hot weather with them, the Silverstone paddock was unusually bathed in glorious sunshine for the majority of the competition, with the action heating up not just on track but in the presentation events and the new FS-AI Technology Hub.
Fresh from their win earlier in the year at their home competition in Australia, ECU Racing add the UK title to their 2024 haul, also taking home the coveted Engineering Design trophy to add to their Sprint and Endurance wins from the on-track events. Scoring 915 points out of a possible 1,000, their dominant performance makes them among the highest scoring teams seen at the competition.
With this win, Edith Cowan join RMIT and Monash as Australian champions of the UK competition, as well as fellow countryman Oscar Piastri, who also celebrated his first win in Formula OneTM at the Hungarian Grand Prix earlier in the weekend.
While not necessarily coming home with any silverware, 2024 was a redemption year for several universities. Examples of this were University of Salford and Trinity College Dublin, who celebrated the achievement of getting their first ever cars on track at Silverstone while teams from Bolton, Central Lancashire and UCL had a return to form with getting their cars on track having been absent for many years.
Elsewhere in the competition, the team from Cairo University retained their Concept Class Engineering Design win, while University of Glasgow secured the overall Concept Class win following strong performances across all the presentation-based events.
The FS-AI competition continues to go from strength to strength, with 20 teams participating in the autonomous vehicles challenge; the most number of student teams seen since its inception in 2018.
Thanks to renewed funding from the Centre for Connected Autonomous Vehicles (CCAV), the number of drone vehicles supplied has doubled from two to four vehicles, allowing for more students to get acquainted with the system, check over their work and test out their driving systems and software on the Silverstone track.
Speaking at the competition's opening ceremony, Deputy Head for CCAV Michael Talbot was impressed at the students' capabilities and enthusiasm, emphasising that the UK needs the skills and experience of young engineers to solve the transportation and engineering challenges of the future.
In terms of winners, the University of Edinburgh dominated the on-track dynamic events and also secured the overall win across the FS-AI competition. Newcomers from ECE Paris also saw success, winning the Real-World AI presentation event in their first year.
Chief FS-AI Judge Emma Penney was delighted at the outcome of this year. “It’s been incredible seeing the progress made by students across all areas of FS-AI, with more teams able to get their AI cars moving and with faster times. Congratulations to all the teams taking part!”
The Formula Student Organising committee is grateful for the support of partners Ansys, MathWorks, JLR and Tata Elxsi, FS-AI Partner Babcock International, sponsors Multimatic, RS, Onshape, Faraday Institution, Avonside Safety Management and Bentley Motors, exhibitors AWE, Mercedes AMG HPP, Mercedes AMG F1, Dewesoft, Energy Systems Catapult, Matrix Technologies and IPG Automotive.
Naomi Rolfe, Project Manager for Formula Student, was delighted. “The event has gone incredibly smoothly and congratulations to everyone. I’m particularly impressed by the passion of all the students across the competition and by the dedication of our army of volunteer judges, scrutineers and marshals, without which the event would not be possible.
The full list of award winners and scores are available on the Formula Student website.
On behalf of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, we hope all students have enjoyed the chance to compete and hope you will join us once again for another year of Formula Student when registration reopens in Autumn.