UK (Oxford Brookes University) Oxford Brookes Racing continues dominance at Formula Student with eight-trophy haul

Engineering students at Oxford Brookes University continued their dominance at Formula Student UK with this year’s biggest haul of trophies at the annual competition.

The University’s dedicated racing team, Oxford Brookes Racing (OBR), came away with eight trophies, which included a third place finish in the overall competition that took place between 19 and 23 July at Silverstone Circuit.

Oxford Brookes Racing is the most successful UK team in the history of the IMechE  Formula Student UK, which was celebrating its 25th anniversary this year with 119 teams competing.

OBR Team Lead and Motorsport Engineering student Tessa Waldron, said: “This was another fantastic year at Formula Student Silverstone for OBR. Taking home eight awards from across the weekend is a great reward for our hard work, and gives us more opportunities to continue learning going into future competitions.”

OBR’s continued dominance at Silverstone

This year, Oxford Brookes Racing entered two teams into the competition, OBR Electric Vehicle (EV) and OBR Autonomous Vehicle (AV), who between them scooped up the eight awards.
The EV competition saw the team design and build the physical race car, while the AV team competed in a contest whereby entrants wrote software in order to navigate a driverless car, which was driven autonomously around the Silverstone track.

OBR EV collected six trophies, which included first place in the categories for Engineering Design, Business Plan Presentation, Formula Student Skid Pad, and the Overall Static Events. In addition, the  team were also judged to have the best design of electric powertrain  by the Faraday Institution.

OBR AV collected two awards, which were for Formula Student-Artificial Intelligence overall Static Events, and the Simulation category.

Image credited to Formula Student

Also competing for the first time ever this year was Helwan University from Egypt, who have partnered with Oxford Brookes Racing to form their own racing team.

As part of the ZEMO Egypt project, students and staff at Oxford Brookes worked with their counterparts at Helwan University Cairo, to assist them in designing their own all-electric car. The partnership, funded by the British Council, is aimed to encourage electric vehicle learning and inspire the next generation of women engineering leaders in Egypt.

Gordana Collier, Head of the School of Engineering at Oxford Brookes University, and the Principal Academic Adviser for OBR, said: “These were exceptional results for the team in another successful campaign at Formula Student UK for Oxford Brookes Racing.

“I’d like to pay tribute to all the hard work and dedication from each member of OBR over the last year in building our car, and ensuring the team were fully prepared to compete. Special mention to Tessa Waldron, OBR Team Lead, and Tor Nielsen, OBR Chief Engineer, who have led the car design and build superbly.

“We were also delighted to see our friends from Helwan University competing at Silverstone. I’d like to also offer my congratulations to them for making it to the UK to compete, as well as securing a fifth place finish in the Design Class Simulation category, which is an excellent achievement for their first Formula Student competition.

“Next for us at OBR, we are looking forward to competing in Formula Student Czech Republic from 7 to 12 August.”

Image credited to Formula Student

Formula Student at Silverstone began in 1981, and is the largest student motorsport competition in the world.

Teams from across the world can enter their own single seat motor racing car, either combustion or electric engine, which are judged on their speed, acceleration and endurance across the weekend at the world famous Silverstone track.

Image credited to Formula Student