British team is crowned the winner of Formula Student 2017

The Institution of Mechanical Engineers’ Formula Student event is a global competition which saw more than 2,000 students from 24 countries pack out the Silverstone paddocks on 20th-23rd July. The main Class 1 competition saw 19 electric vehicles and 73 cars with combustion engines (including Cardiff University’s) compete.

While Cardiff Racing were overall winners, it was actually a British one-two, as UB Racing from the University of Birmingham came second. Swedish team Karlstad University came third.

Luca Di Marino and Alex Goff, Joint Team Leaders at Cardiff University, said: “We could never have dreamt of this in a million years. In all the years of competing at Formula Student, Cardiff have never been victorious so all credit must go to the team for a great effort – it’s beyond our wildest dreams.

“The other teams were great and we just want to thank the university as well as our families and friends for their support. We couldn’t have done it without them.”

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. “It has been a superb competition overall, with the rain holding off for the endurance event – all teams seemed to really enjoy themselves. Congratulations to all who took part and we look forward to welcoming everyone back for a bigger and better event next year.”

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.

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

The weekend’s event was the 20th Formula Student competition. Formula Student’s partners are Bosch Group, GKN, Jaguar Land Rover, MathWorks and Mercedes AMG High Performance Powertrains.