The global competition, run by the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, is the world’s largest student motorsport event and challenges student engineers to design, build and race a single seat racing car in one year.
The University of Stuttgart’s combustion engine team, Rennteam Stuttgart, won after impressive performances in the endurance challenge and the overall dynamic events. Second place went to Germany’s Karlsruhe University, Austria’s TU Graz came third, while the University of Bath were the top UK team in fourth place.
Andrew Deakin, Chairman of Formula Student, said in response to the win:
“Congratulations to the University of Stuttgart. It’s been great to see an internal combustion car win again. It brings to a close what has been an excellent event with the highest number of cars completing scrutineering and getting through all the dynamic events.
“The competition continues to improve every year and I look forward to welcoming all the teams back in 2017.”
Joscha Haupt, Team Leader of the University of Stuttgart, said:
“It feels amazing to have won this year’s Formula Student. We have worked really hard and are delighted to have come first. It’s very tough to compete against all the strong electric teams but we enjoy the challenge of competing with a combustion engine.
“The team changes every year and the car was fantastic. We want to make sure that we continue to improve so we can come back even stronger next year.”
The competition, now in its 19th year, took place at the home of British motorsport in Silverstone 14-17 July.
The cars are judged on their speed, acceleration, handling and endurance in a series of time-trial races, while the teams are tested on their design, costing and business presentation skills.
Dozens of Formula Student alumni have progressed to Formula 1, and hundreds more are now working at the world’s largest automotive firms helping to design and engineer the cars of tomorrow.
There were 156 teams in total, and more than 2,000 students from 34 countries at this year’s competition. This year saw a Sri Lankan team entering Formula Student for the first time. There were other teams from Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Egypt, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Iceland, India, Ireland, Italy, Jordan, Norway, Pakistan, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sweden, Switzerland, The Netherlands, Turkey, UK and Ukraine.
Formula Student usually forms part of the students’ engineering degree course and counts towards their final mark. For new teams who may not have the experience to produce a fully working racecar, Class 2 encourages teams to submit their designs and any manufactured parts for judging.
Formula Student partners for 2016 include Bosch, Jaguar Land Rover, MathWorks, GKN and Mercedes AMG.
For the full results: Formula Student 2016 results
For photographs of the event, including the winning team and car: Formula Student Flickr