Brunel Students Race Ahead to Take First Prize in Formula Student Class Two
A team of engineering students from West London’s Brunel University streaked ahead of the competition to take away first prize in Class Two of the annual Formula Student racing competition.
The fourteen students, all studying for MSc degrees in Automotive and Motorsport Engineering, have spent the first half of this year designing the award-winning rolling chassis, which they entered for Class Two, the static class.
Formula Student is an annual competition open to universities across Europe, run by the Institution of Mechanical Engineers (IMechE), in partnership with the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) and the Institution of Electrical Engineers (IEE). It promotes careers and excellence in engineering by challenging university students to design, build, develop, market and compete as a team with a small single seater racing car.
Class Two involves the design and manufacture of a working car chassis as well as competing in numerous static events. Without the added time constraints of entering a fully running car, the Brunel team were able to manufacture a chassis with an unmatched build quality. At the competition, the Brunel team’s entry, BMM-01, was by far the most complete Class Two vehicle. It was the only car in its class that had suspension and steering components fitted to the chassis.
As well as impressing a panel of experts judges, from across the automotive and motorsport industries, the chassis particularly caught the eye of Ross Brawn, Technical Director of Ferrari Formula One, who opened the event
Albert Lau, the Brunel Masters Motorsports co-team manager commented: “We’re delighted with this win, but there’s no time to sit on our laurels. Coming straight off this win, we’ll be getting back to the workshop in preparation for the Italian Formula ATA event. We’ll be entering BMM-01 as a full Class One car, which gives us just a few weeks to turn a rolling chassis into a fully running car. It’s a challenge, but we’re hoping for a good result!”
Formula ATA is a new event run by the Italian Automotive Technical Association that runs under the same rules as Formula Student and will take place during the 22nd-25th of September.
