Racing Pride Aston Martin Award for Diversity & Inclusion 2025

Racing Pride is the leading international movement to champion LGBTQ+ inclusion through motorsport, working with partners in motorsport and the automotive industry right up to Formula One.

The purpose of this award is to recognise Formula Student teams which do the most to promote diversity and inclusion broadly – including, but not in any way limited to, of the LGBTQ+ community. The award is open to teams participating in Formula Student 2025.

The prize for this award is offered by Racing Pride partners Aston Martin. Members of the winning team will enjoy an exclusive experience with Aston Martin Aramco Formula One Team at Silverstone. This is scheduled to take place on Monday 21st July – the day after Formula Student 2025.

Applications should consist of a short PDF document or slide deck. Please make sure to submit the necessary contact details for us to get in touch about your application. Applications will be judged by Aston Martin’s internal inclusion networks alongside Racing Pride.

Teams should submit their applications by 23rd June to fs@imeche.org with the subject line “Racing Pride Aston Martin Award for Diversity & Inclusion”. The winning team will be informed of the judges’ decision by 4th July in order to give time to arrange logistics with the winning team, and the award will be presented at the Awards Ceremony at Formula Student 2025. The winning team is requested to keep their success secret until the award has been presented.

Below is a list of things you may wish to include in your application. It is not exhaustive and the items on it are not mandatory, but it is intended to indicate elements you may wish to think about when putting your application together. Teams are encouraged to use their creativity and should not feel constrained by the suggestions listed.

Things you may wish to include:

• Information about levels of diversity within your team
• Information about any welfare or inclusion-oriented arrangements within the structure of your team, such as having a welfare officer and/or training and/or written materials around diversity and inclusion
• Links to any website and social media channels you may have
• Links to a selection of specific posts which you feel highlight your commitment to communicating the importance of inclusion and allyship
• Examples of 1 or 2 email communications (as PDF documents) circulated within the team which demonstrate an awareness of the importance of inclusion
• Details of any initiatives or events your team has created or been involved with either internally or externally to promote diversity and inclusion. This could be starting your own initiative or hosting your own event, activities in partnership with your Student Union, or working together with local or national campaigns or organisations
• Links to (or PDFs of) coverage of any initiatives or events your team has created or been involved with to promote diversity and inclusion
• Details of any other factors or steps you have taken to promote diversity and inclusion which you would like the judges to be aware of!
• Contact details (name, preferred pronouns, email address, and phone number) so we can get in touch about your application

Last Year’s Winners:

Last year’s Award was won by Southampton University. Key points which impressed the judges were:

• Focus on induction training and upskilling so everyone can get involved and learn
• 2-person Diversity, Inclusion, and Equity team
• Their carefully and ethically designed internal survey revealed 20 different nationalities, 44% from ethnic minority groups, 23% identify as neurodivergent, and 25% are first generation students
• Comprehensive internal EDI measures including training for committee leads, attending talks and events and inviting expert perspectives, signposting to cost of living resources available, facilitating the use of preferred names and pronouns, and creating a welfare hub.
• Outreach initiatives such as collaborating with the national motor museum to develop resources for key stage 3 and 4 students.
• Future plans including integrating audio description to improve access to materials