University of Oxford: Electric race car designed by students takes part in Formula Student at the home of British Motor Racing

The team, made up of 50 talented students from across the University, was competing in Formula Student – Europe’s most established educational motorsport competition, backed by industry and high-profile engineers. The competition aims to develop enterprising and innovative young engineers and encourage more young people to take up a career in engineering, and combines practical engineering experience with business planning and project management.

The event took place over five days (6-10 July) and saw each team produce a prototype single-seat race car, culminating in a series of rigorous vehicle tests, as well as a team proposal to a hypothetical manufacturing firm to justify the project’s economic viability. The team entered with their first ever electric race car – designed, created and tested entirely by Oxford University Racing. They were one of the first teams to pass the challenging Accumulator Scrutineering process and placed in the top 15 (out of a total 61 teams) for the Business Plan Presentation.

Tanmayee Deshprabhu, a DPhil Student in Engineering Science and member of Oxford University Racing said, ‘It was fantastic to finally see the car come together for the race thanks to a massive team effort from everyone involved. The competition at Silverstone was really exciting and we were able to learn so much from our own experience as well as from speaking to other teams who have already been racing for years. We’ve given ourselves an excellent starting point to start designing and building our next electric race car ahead of Formula Student 2023!’