Success for UH Racing Formula Student team!

The UH Racing Formula Student team have been working hard to prepare for the Formula Student Virtual event which took place last week. The team had a very successful competition, placing 2nd overall, and we want to congratulate the team for all their hard work. 

The annual event usually takes place live at Silverstone, but when it became clear that a physical event was not going to be possible, the Institution of Mechanical Engineers arranged to hold virtual static and dynamic events for the teams. 

For the static events, the teams submitted pre-recorded presentations for the design, cost and business presentations and they had a series of follow-up Q&A sessions with their judging panel. Out of 66 competitors, the team placed 5th in the Business Presentation, 4th in the Design event and were runners up taking 2nd place in the Cost and Manufacturing event. This led the team to 2nd overall in the Static events. 

The teams also prepared for a series of virtual dynamic events.  The first dynamic event included enhancing the setup of a generic formula student car, using a Multi-Body Dynamics Model and recreations of the courses used at Silverstone.  These were used for the Acceleration, Skid pad and Autocross Student events. The team placed 15th in the Skid pad event, 7th in the Acceleration event, and took top honours in the loop autocross simulation event out of 34 competitors!  

You can see the UH team's entry for the virtual dynamic event here.

As part of the dynamic events, the teams also competed in both Sprint and Endurance style competitions.  

In the Sprint event UH Racing placed 9th, making them eligible for a Top Ten shoot-out, where teams battled for bonus points for the event. The team claimed 6th place in the shoot-out giving the team a 7th place overall in sprint, and a handful of points.   

In the endurance event, each team had to compete in 8 heats across 4 rounds. In each round, teams used a different iconic British racing car around 4 well known UK racetracks. After all their hard work, the team achieved consistently good finishing places and secured a position in the ‘A final’ on the Sunday.  

The ‘A final’ lasted 30 minutes and included a driver change – all done virtually! The team had some nail-biting moments but managed to finish an honourable 7th place in the final!  

With solid points collected across both dynamic disciplines, the team were announced as second overall in the dynamic events, which is an excellent achievement! 

Given the changes that the organisers had to make this year, it meant that not all the teams could enter both the static and dynamic events. This meant there was no overall winner this year.  

We want to congratulate the UH Racing Formula Student team and those involved, for all their hard work – what an amazing achievement! 

Dr Howard Ash, Automotive Group Leader, congratulates the team and sends thanks to all of those that have helped the team this year, 

“Suffice it to say I am very proud of the monumental effort put in by our students to overcome the difficult circumstances faced and to still be able to compete at the highest level on the international stage.  

My thanks once again to the many partners and colleagues who have kindly helped the UH Racing Formula Student team, they have done us more than proud!”