Institution news
Tickets are available now to join the on-track dynamic events at the weekend of 22-23 July 2023, use codes MEMBER10 for 10% off your tickets to join us and don’t forget to bring your young engineers for a great family day out (kids 15 and under go for free).
Formula Student challenges university student teams to produce a working prototype of a single-seat race car for autocross or sprint racing and present it to a hypothetical manufacturing firm. Formal presentations to justify their engineering decisions are paired with on-track dynamic tests of a vehicle’s capabilities at the finals event at Silverstone.
The competition provides an engineering project as close to the real world as possible for young engineers to develop their knowledge, practical skills and teamworking abilities, with well over 45,000 students having benefitted from participation prior to going into their first roles in industry.
Fitting for the 25th anniversary, this year will see four former champions fight it out on track, with teams from Modena, Glasgow, Cardiff and Sheffield all looking to add a second championship to their belt. Additionally, more teams than ever will be taking part in the FS-AI competition, in which teams from UK and overseas will put their autonomous driving systems to the test in multiple on-track events using the competition’s bespoke autonomous vehicle.
2023 will also see significant changes in the choice of powertrains, with more electric vehicles entering the competition than ever before, while those teams continuing to run combustion engines now have the chance to run new sustainable biofuels offered by Coryton and Motorsport UK.
Running in tandem with the competition, the Friday of the competition will also see the culmination of the 2023 Sim Racing Series. Now in its second full season, teams are encouraged to develop and optimise their vehicle setup while participating in fun and competitive sim racing events. This year’s finals will be hosted in the Sim Racing Labs at Williams’ Headquarters at Grove, with all the action streamed live on the Formula Student YouTube channel.
"We are delighted to welcome so many teams to this year’s competition," said Naomi Rolfe, Formula Student Project Manager at the IMechE. "Formula Student remains dedicated to offering young engineers the chance to enhance their educational background by cultivating practical skills in cutting-edge technologies. This commitment ensures a continuous supply of talented young engineers who are well equipped to meet the current and future demands of industry.”
The Formula Student Organising committee is grateful for the support of partners MathWorks, Ansys, Bentley Motors and Red Bull Engineering Academy, FS-AI Partner Babcock International, and sponsors RS Grass Roots, MAHLE Powertrain, Polestar, The Faraday Institution, Mercedes AMG High Performance Powertrains, Aston Martin Cognizant Formula One Team, IPG Automotive, McLaren Applied, Newton Europe, AB Dynamics, Multimatic and Embed UK.
On behalf of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers and the Formula Student Organising committee, we wish all participating teams the very best as they finalise their cars ahead of the July competition and look forward to welcoming everyone to watch the results of their work at the live event at Silverstone.