The current Formula Student has its beginning in the early 80s in the University of Texas in Austin, United States. It was born as Formula SAE (Society of Automotive Engineers) and afterwards it was turned into the current Formula Student, which gathers projects linked to racing single-seaters under certain rules.
The university environment is the embryo of this project that unleashes one of the biggest ambitions of the students: put in practice everything they are learning in class in a tangible way, and for that nothing better than the competition.
Designing, producing, manufacturing and competing in a viable way is the objective that, framed in a regulation, aligns the single-seaters in the star line in every event.
Europe receives this discipline year after year; Great Britain and Germany are the role models, but here in Spain there’s also a great movement of this formula. The Circuit de Catalunya in Montmeló receives from the 21st to the 26th of August a competition in the calendar.
International university teams are gathered to be evaluated in two disciplines: Static events, which evaluate the design, the cost analysis and business plan (proof of the interaction of the components in the university team), and the Dynamic events, where they assess different tests like skidpad (behaviour in a eight-shaped circuit), acceleration, autocross (timed), endurance and consumption (resistance and consumption).
The challenge of each team is to prove themselves, to see if they are able to work for a shared goal. The automotive brands don’t disregard this movement and they are attentive to new talents. It is usual to integrate ex-students in their design and development teams as a great step in their working future.
NG Brakes has collaborated for many years with this specialty. We provide different university teams with the perfect brake discs to their prototypes. For us it’s a new source of information and feedback, essential in the development and test of our products.
“I never stop feeling impressed every year by the amount of talent shown by the Formula Student competitors.”
– Ross Brawn, current Formula 1 Motor Sports and Technical Director before FS Patron, Mercedes AMG, Petronas F1 team.
