An electric vehicle has won the Institution of Mechanical Engineers’ Formula Student (FS) event for the first time in the competition’s history.
ETH Zurich, from Switzerland, stormed to victory with an extraordinary total of 921.3 points at Silverstone as over 2,100 students from around the world battled for the prestigious title.
It is believed to be the first time that an electric vehicle has beaten cars powered by combustion engines in any accredited motorsport competition.
Another electric vehicle - built by German team UAS Zwickau - claimed second place with 851.5 points and their compatriots from the University of Stuttgart came third with 814 points with their petrol-powered car.
The top UK team was the University of Huddersfield, who scored 502.6 - one place ahead of last year’s champions, Chalmers University of Technology.
In total, 25 countries were represented, 90 cars ran and there were 22 Class 2 teams. Hundreds of people packed the paddocks to cheer on their teams, as a year of work and thousands of hours spent in the garage came down to eight technical and dynamic events.
Formula Student had kicked off in style thanks to an opening ceremony which featured arguably the most high profile engineers ever assembled for the event. Ross Brawn - Team Principal of Mercedes AMG PETRONAS and patron of Formula Student – was joined by Formula Student Ambassadors Leena Gade, the race engineer who guided Audi to victory at Le Mans in 2011 and 2012, James Allison, the former Technical Director of the Lotus Formula One team, and Mike Gascoyne the chief technical officer of the Caterham Group; and John Baxter, a Past President of the Institution and Group Head of Engineering at BP.
FS Education day
Five schools were invited to take part in the Formula Student education day on Friday 5 July, to engage and inspire 130 school children aged 10-15 via various activities designed for the day.
Richard Folkson CEng FIMechE opened the day by welcoming all the schools and describing what Formula Student is and how he was inspired to become an engineer as a child. This was followed by Senior Engineer at Bloodhound SSC, James Painter CEng MIMechE, an ex-FS competitor, who explained the project, the challenges the team face and a host of incredible facts, much to the amusement of the students.
The rest of the day was then filled with four different activities with the children split into four groups of 30. With the help of eight IMechE ambassadors, many of whom were ex-FS competitors, the activities included: paddock tours of Silverstone; a workshop explaining what makes racing cars different by Motor Sports Association (MSA); free time where they were able to explore the exhibitors’ stands and paddocks whilst answering a treasure hunt questionnaire; a clever-copter “design and make” exercise as featured on the Tomorrow’s Engineers website; and the build and race of Bloodhound balloon-cars resulting in a finals competition at the end of the day featuring the winners from each group.
As the day drew to a close, the winners of the Bloodhound balloon car races and treasure hunt trail were presented with prizes which included miniature Bloodhound models and a signed t-shirt and cap. Craig Brown AMIMechE, Principal Engineer at Jaguar Land Rover, wrapped up the FS experience with an exciting presentation about his role at JLR and day-to-day responsibilities supported by some great videos of their existing and new vehicle range.
Strong media coverage
This year's competition has attracted strong media coverage since the official media launch in January. Pre-event, the inaugural FS Diesel Eco Challenge – run jointly with Bosch UK – received excellent national and regional press coverage, including articles in the Daily Telegraph and The Star.
During the main competition at Silverstone, Formula Student was covered by BBC Look East (evening) BBC Northampton Breakfast Show, ITV Anglia Breakfast, Motorsport News,and RTE News among many others.
Additionally, number of automotive publications including Racecar Engineering, Race Tech and Motorsport Magazine, are currently putting together post-event reports/supplements on Formula Student for their next editions.
Summing up the success of the event, Jon Hilton, Chairman of Formula Student, said: “Many congratulations to ETH Zurich on their very well deserved win. The electrically powered cars have made huge progress going from being unable to complete the 22 Km endurance event to winning overall in just five years. We are delighted by this progress but we will have to see what needs to be done in the future to ensure petrol cars remain competitive.”
"The standard of vehicles on display, and the ingenuity of the students who create them, never fails to amaze me. This year's competition showcased exactly why these men and women are among the world's best young engineers, and all who took part should feel very proud of what they achieved."
The Formula Student team acknowledges the contribution of 2013 Partners Jaguar Land Rover, Mercedes AMG High Performance Powertrains, National Instruments and Shell.
To see the results in full, together with photographs and videos from the event, please visit: www.formulastudent.com
