Formula Student 2024: Sun, Speed and Silverstone

F1 driver Oscar Piastri wasn’t the only Australian celebrating victory last weekend in the world of motorsport, as RS PRO sponsored Western Australia’s Edith Cowan University became the grand champions of Formula Student 2024 at Silverstone, beating off competition from another 55 university teams from around the world, including 30 who were proudly sponsored by RS.

Now in its 26th year, the IMechE Formula Student competition challenges university students 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.

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. Scoring 915 points out of a possible 1,000, Edith Cowan University’s dominant performance makes them among the highest scoring teams ever seen at the competition.

This year the 30 successful teams to be supported by our RS Build Fund came from across England, Scotland, South Africa, Indonesia, Spain, Portugal, Poland, Mexico, Czech Republic, Ireland and Germany.

From those teams Coventry University’s Phoenix Racing finished highest overall in 7th, whilst Glasgow Caledonian University’s GCU Racing were the overall Static Event winners, Lap Time Simulation Concept Class winners and Concept Class overall winners. The University of Strathclyde Motorsport’s Murray MacFarlane was awarded Formula Student’s Most Entertaining Driver.

In the FS-AI category the RS supported University of Edinburgh team were the Class Overall Winners and picked up awards in the Skid Pad, Sprint, Trackdrive and Dynamic Events categories.

Cal, Head of Junior Engineering in the South Bank Racing team told us: “We’re quite a new team with a small budget, so having that Build Fund budget on board just meant that we could push ourselves further, by getting a few more higher quality components and stuff that is made to last. Our electrical team used a lot of the RS budget and it has been really vital for crucial parts of the car."

Stuart White, Suspension Engineer in the GCU Racing team added: “The RS Build Fund has really helped our team to get off the ground and it has been so great having an RS Local within walking distance of our university. It’s allowed us to walk there, get what we need and get the work done.”

Sophie Jeffrey from the RS Grass Roots team said: “It was a great week at Formula Student. Supporting student engineers is at the core of what we do, and we're thrilled to have sponsored 30 teams from around the world with RS products to help them build their cars and compete. It was inspiring to witness the dedication and innovation of these young engineers as they brought their designs to life.

“RS has been backing this established engineering competition for over 15 years, and for the third time, we're proud to have sponsored the EV category. This year’s event was brilliant, and we had the pleasure of meeting so many talented student engineers who are sure to become future customers for RS.”

The 30 teams who received the RS Grass Roots Education Build Fund this year with hands-on technical learning product donations worth ￡1000 or equivalent were:

Arjuna Electric Vehicle Universitas Gadjah Mada?(Indonesia)?Universitas Gadjah Mada

?Arm(E3)NGAGE Dut Student Club?(South Africa)?Durban University of Technology?

?Brunel Racing?(United Kingdom)?Brunel University London

?Coventry University Phoenix Racing (United Kingdom)?Coventry University

?Edinburgh University Formula Student Society (United Kingdom) University of Edinburgh

?Formula Gades (Spain) University of Cadiz

?Formula Student Team Napier (United Kingdom)?Edinburgh Napier University

?GCU Racing (United Kingdom)?Glasgow Caledonian University

?Imperial Formula Racing??(United Kingdom)?Imperial College London

?LART?(Portugal)?Instituto Politécnico de Leiria

?Manchester Stinger Motorsports?(United Kingdom)?University of Manchester

?MART?(Spain)?University of Málaga

?PWR Racing Team?(Poland)?Wroc?aw University of Science and Technology

?Salford Racing?(United Kingdom)?University of Salford

?Sheffield Formula Racing?(United Kingdom)?The University of Sheffield

?South Bank Racing??(United Kingdom)?London South Bank University

?SURTES EC?(United Kingdom)?University of Surrey

?TAU Racing?(United Kingdom)?University of Aberdeen

?TM Racing- ITESM??(Mexico)?Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey?

?Tu Brno racing?(Czech Republic)?BUT?

?UCD Formula Student?(Ireland)?University College Dublin

?UGRacing?(United Kingdom)

?University of Glasgow?UH Racing?(United Kingdom)?University of Hertfordshire

?UMD Racing?(Germany)?OvGU Magdeburg

?University of Leicester Racing?(United Kingdom)?University of Leicester

?University Of Liverpool Motorsport?(United Kingdom)?University Of Liverpool?

?University Of Plymouth Racing?(United Kingdom)?University of Plymouth?

University of Strathclyde Motorsport?(United Kingdom)?University of Strathclyde

UWE-AI?(United Kingdom)?University of the West of England

XRacing Exeter?(United Kingdom)?University of Exeter