Cardiff University team becomes first UK Formula Student winner

A team of students from Cardiff University has been crowned the first UK winner of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers’ Formula Student 2017, a competition which challenges student engineers to design, build and race a single seat racing car in one year.

The competition, now in its 20th year, saw more than 2000 students from 24 countries compete at Silverstone between 20 and 23 July. The main Class 1 competition saw 19 electric vehicles and 73 cars with combustion engines compete.

As part of the competition, cars are judged on their speed, acceleration, handling and endurance in a series of time-trial races, while the teams are tested on their design, costing and business presentation skills.

Cardiff Racing were Overall Winners, UB Racing from the University of Birmingham came second and Swedish team Karlstad University came third.

Andrew Deakin, chairman of Formula Student, said: “It’s great to see a UK team doing well and to win the overall competition. Cardiff Racing’s entry was fantastic, their car was innovative and that showed with their performance on the track.”

Dozens of Formula Student alumni have progressed to Formula 1, and hundreds more are working at the world’s largest automotive firms helping to design and engineer the cars of tomorrow.